Jack Chivo: Silence on Syria speaks volumes about activists' priorities
I am still impatiently waiting for a call from Libby Davies's office, or from the MP herself. Earlier this week, I contacted the Vancouver office of the passionate defender of human rights of the people in the Middle East, especially Palestinians, and wondered why there is no action from Ms. Davies, no press release, no op-ed, and obviously no participation in any demonstrations to protest the ongoing slaughter of innocent civilians in Syria, after many months of a genocide there.
Because of her usual swift and passionate reaction as a devoted advocate and an active participant and speaker at marches and demonstrations across Canada—from Quebec to Vancouver—in support of the Palestinians, this would have been expected following news reports that Syrian tanks and artillery, after slaughtering their own citizens for months, have even started shelling a Palestinian refugee camp in the port city of Latakia. But I couldn't find anything.
When I called her office on Monday, the assistant who answered the phone first tried to slalom around the question by saying that "Ms. Davies will of course vote in favour of a resolution about the Syrian situation." But it wasn't good enough for me, especially knowing that Parliament will be on hiatus for another five weeks, with many more potential casualties.
I further asked why there is nothing in Libby Davies's blog about the daily murders ordered by the vicious despots in Damascus, and there was no explanation either. After a few more attempts to change the subject, and apparently not knowing what else to say, the assistant took down my name, address, and phone number with the promise that I will be contacted very soon either by the office, or by Ms. Davies.
Three days later, nothing so far!
I also forwarded an email to another person who likes the limelight, always beating his chest as a "flotilla" participant, even offering to act as a human shield for the Palestinians in Gaza: Kevin Neish from Victoria, a self-proclaimed peace activist, who, at age 53, appears to have already been fully retired for over a decade, which in itself is interesting. I asked the same question, about the total silence from him and his soul mates, always very vocal in their support for Arabs in general, and Palestinians in particular, but failing this time to organize any demonstrations, no letters to the government, no actions at all, when Palestinian refugees had been bombed, killed, maimed, and frightened by an Arab ruler.
At least, he responded, but in a very convoluted way, by telling me about his experiences as a "human shield" for South American activists a number of times over the past decade and more, and other brave previous activities, but conveniently avoiding to explain why he is not criticizing the butcher of Damascus, or helping the Syrian people by saying or doing something, even organizing a "flotilla"—or perhaps travelling there as a human shield, something he appears to be specializing in.
When I insisted to have a reply about what he has personally done for the Palestinians in Syria, Neish conveniently went silent.
For a short while, I kept wondering why were these people and their fellow activists so involved only a few months ago, and many times in the past, with flotillas to Gaza, where there was no immediate need, besides a propaganda coup, and are totally unresponsive now. All world leaders—and the huge majority of the Muslim leaders, with the exception of Iran—along with millions of concerned citizens, journalists, activists, politicians, and personalities have condemned the five-month long slaughter in Syria, and many of requested the removal of its dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
According to the Arab media, even Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the PLO, often a recipient of Syrian help, issued this week a strong statement describing the barbaric actions of the government in Damascus as "crimes against humanity".
And then it dawned to me. I remembered a cartoon published a number of years ago in a paper in Congo, during the time when hundreds of thousands, probably millions of Congolese were being slaughtered by government forces, militias, and other thugs. It showed the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, sitting next to a UN general and witnessing how people were executed point blank and thrown in a huge pit on top of hundreds of other corpses.
Annan, responding to a question from the general, commented that "unless they were killed by British or French, it isn't our business!!"
Which is the explanation I was looking for.
In reality, these "activists and human rights defenders" don't give a damn about crimes committed against millions of Arabs, Chechens, Kurds, Iranians, Somalis, even Palestinians and/or other Muslims, unless they can blame it on the Jews, the Americans, or the Brits. Which is their only agenda.
Jack Chivo is a retired journalist and resident of West Vancouver.
Comments
33 Comments
NoRightWingNeoConSheep
Aug 20, 2011 at 4:59pm
ummm... Sounds like you have an Agenda too :).
Murder is Murder, regardless of who does it. There has been far too much murder of defenseless Civilian, Israeli's, Palestinians, Syrians and Libyans this year so far.
Everyone regardless of religious or political view should speak out against the atrocities of the Syrian dictators + their Iranian assassination squads.
How about you Chivo are against the daily murder of the Civilian Syrians by Assad the Dick-tator? What about the deaths of Civilian Palestinians and Israelis by the war mongers on each side?
Or are you an unconditional supporter of only one side?
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
...............................................................................Albert Einstein
Doroteo Arango
Aug 20, 2011 at 5:41pm
Easy answer: because western media manipulates and lies about everything, thus, no one knows what is REALLY going on.
There is no such a thing as professional and independent media, once they accepted to be 'embedded" with the invading western armies [Canadians included]: they became part of the problem.
Media corporations are at the service of the Establishment, and the Establishment wants a world made according to their own needs. They need oil, uniformity, conformity, fear and wars and more wars to sell their hardware and make more money.
They invent "colour revolutions", "humanitarian bombings", "democratic wars", "humanitarian invasions", "popular uprising", "peaceful demonstrations" with people armed to the teeth.....lies, lies and more lies, thus, no one knows the real truth about Syria.
I suspect the usual plunderers and thieves are trying to eliminate Syria and bring "democracy", that is, THEIR VERSION of it, like in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I don't believe ONE THING the media or their apologist says.
Birdy
Aug 20, 2011 at 8:10pm
Hey Jack, for a "retired journalist" you sure write a lot of hit pieces like this, passive-aggressively targeting anyone who doesn't cheerfully support the genocide in Palestine.
I honestly hope that someday, you will fall out of love with violence.
albert samtu
Aug 20, 2011 at 8:11pm
You have your information upside down. Simply put, Syria is trying hard to restore peace and order in the face of an armed Islamic insurgents who decided to ride the wave of an uprising that started for economic reasons.
Jack Chivo
Aug 20, 2011 at 10:11pm
To all of those who have commented, Thank you!!
And, yes, I have an agenda!!
I want the bloodshed to stop, all over the world, from Somalia to Pakistan and from Los Angeles to the Middle East. Each dying child, each killed man, woman or elderly, is a stain on our civilised world, And these are not empty words. No more Arab people, no more Jewish people, no more Syrians. Libyans, Sudanese, no more anyone being killed for whatever reasons!
What I dislike, however, is to see the so-called activists, who go on the barricades when "their protegees" are hurt, but say no word when millions of others are decimated.
Hypocrisy has the same meaning around the world!
And for the cheap shot of "cheerfully supporting the genocide in Palestine", Birdy, you can do better!!
When did I say it, and where??
A professor of mine once said that "empty sentences are the sign of an empty brain". Prove him wrong, with some examples. Otherwise, he might be right!!.
Don't be a hypocrite
Aug 20, 2011 at 11:20pm
Mr Chivo. If you care so much about the ongoing brutality in Syria, why not organize your own protest? You make it sound like activists have all this time to organize multiple grassroots movements, rallies and campaigns. In the time you spent ranting and typing up this piece, and calling up people to criticize them, you could have started something. I think the difference here is that Canada, the government, U.S. and the EU (among other leaders) have already spoken out against Assad in Syria and his mass killings of protestors and civilians in an attempt to shut down the resistance. But, what Canada and other leaders haven't done, is speak out against the attacks on Gaza over the past few days by Israel. With Palestine, it's not exactly the 'same' as in other Arab nations, in other Arab nations, what we're seeing is revolution. In Palestine, and in Gaza, what were seeing is actual genocide of a people, or a nation, by another people & another nation. In particular, its a country that has the unwavering support from our government and many others. So, before you start criticizing other activists and advocates who are at least doing something, maybe you should try to do something yourself.
Karmel
Aug 21, 2011 at 9:25am
You are so right Jack. These self-proclaimed human rights activists would never knowingly put themselves in harms way. They have a much better chance of surviving a confrontation with the Israeli army than the Syrian army. They should act as human shields in Syria or in Turkey (Kurds) or in Sudan or go protect the muslims in China! What about Somalia? Aid groups had to withdraw because they were attacked. Why don't these so-called activists go there? But you know what. They aren't really that brave at all and damn well know they might get hurt or murdered going up agains the real human rights violators of this world. And as for the commenter who posted above me, Gaza wouldn't be attacked if the murderous Hamas terrorists didn't attack and kill civilians in ISRAEL. See, Israeli civilians get murdered by Hamas terrorists inside their own country and Israel attacks their fighters, not their civilians. If some human shields are killed inadvertently, well, according to international law, their deaths are Hamas' fault, not Israel's. And one more point, what is happening to the Palestinians is not genocide, bud. When a genocide is being perpetrated, the number of people shrink not grow. So stop pushing such absurd lies. It just makes you look dumb and your whole argument unbelievable.
Zoe
Aug 21, 2011 at 9:48am
What bullshit. Jack, you don't give a shit about dictators as long as they are pro-Israel. You don't give a fuck about activists doing human rights work, unless they are pro-Israel. You FAIL at propaganda.
MarkT
Aug 21, 2011 at 10:16am
Our ability to identify with victims depends not on who the victims are but whether we can share with them the feeling of victimhood coming from the same enemy. In the western world big part of the population associate their misfortunes (employment problems, high taxes, high mortgages) with the rich of the West (governments, corporations, banks, US, Israel). So when someone seems to be abused by one of the above, it all so clear for us and we couldn't be more outraged. But when the governments of Sudan, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Libya and so on commit massive atrocities against their people - that doesn't ring a bell, we have no history of suffering from this enemy, so although mentally we don't approve, we don't care enough to do anything about it. Our local politician is not going to get votes championing such cause, there are not going to be protests of outraged Canadians, just a small lonely group of people - immigrants from that country.
East Van Arts
Aug 21, 2011 at 12:06pm
The Quakers, and other authentic pacifists, are about the only ones who get it right almost all of the time: "No violence. Anywhere. Any time."
Some people on the left are as mute and blind to certain atrocities (Syria and Libya today) as are those on the right to other atrocities (from the US war in VietNam to former Egypt).
I have met people who imagine that Cuba is a worker's paradise, ignoring the fact that Cuban treatment of gays, dissidents and uncontrollable poets is disgusting.
I have met people who rationalize hereditary communism in North Korea by declaring that it is a "necessary bulwark" against South Korea and China. This is a pitiful joke.
And how about the childish 'revolutionary vanguards' in our own DTES? They have 34 different groups, and a grand total of 22 members. Even then, they spend most of their time fighting one another. Some of them simply hate men, and others are "insufficiently insurrectionary". No wonder no one takes DTES politics seriously.
If we honour moral consistency, murder is murder. The murder of an Israeli child is a grave an offense as the murder of a Palestinian child, or an Iraqi, or a Somali, or a Tutsi, or a child on one of Canada's deplorable 'reserves'. People like Libby Davies need to occupy the high ground in every territory, or she cannot occupy it anywhere.
"A bayonet's contrition is nothing to the dead."
-- Emily Dickinson