He is religious -- dogmatically so. He is controversial -- discussing the innocent loss of life from the Holocaust and the September 11th attacks in ways that are deeply hurtful to many people. He also remains mum on the situation in his own country. But Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is audacious and a voice that should be paid attention to because it has a great deal of influence.
Amidst the soporific array of diplomatic "courtesy" that rains upon the UN General Assembly's annual speeches, his is a speech apart.
Only from him will you hear a reference to historical global colonialism. Only from him will you hear that the descendants of slaves in the United States should be given reparations. Or that the atomic bomb was a travesty of humanity and a war crime that remains unaddressed and unresolved.
It is easy for mainstream media to dismiss Ahmadinejad -- his over-the-top references to the Hidden Imam of Shiite Islam and persistent imposition of himself as an authority on the Holocaust and 9/11 make his speech controversial and hurtful to many, especially those who lost loved ones in these terrible acts. But an objective media - since that is what the mainstream media purports to be - is not in a position to decide what its public should know.
It's like taking a State of the Union speech by a President Bush or Obama and dismissing the important discussions about jobs, economy and education by focusing headlines and news coverage on the outrageous claims of foreign policy victories which most Americans by now know to be false.
Ahmadinejad started off by rattling statistics that the United Nations prides itself on changing:
"Approximately 3 billion people of the world live on less than 2.5 dollars a day, over 200 million live without even one sufficient meal on a daily basis. More than twenty thousand innocent and destitute children die every day in the world due to poverty."
Then he spoke of American and European slavery of Africans:
"Who abducted forcefully tens of millions of people from their homes in Africa and other regions of the world during the dark period of slavery, making them a victim of their materialistic greed in the U.S. and Europe."
He spoke of the deadliest wars of the 20th century:
"Who triggered the first and second world wars that left 70 millions killed?"
He addressed a U.S. and European foreign policy legacy that still haunts most of the world to this day:
"Who imposed and supported for decades military dictatorships in Asian, African and Latin American nations?"
He even questioned the U.S. government's democratic values by asking "why should it not have been allowed to bring [Osama bin Laden] to trial?"
And then he got into the nitty gritty, talking about the imbalanced military expenses of the United States which -- even at a time of massive joblessness, foreclosures and depression -- still exceeds that of all other countries in the world combined. He mentioned the fact that long before Saddam Hussein was an enemy, he was an ally of the United States and some European powers who was "provoked and encouraged to invade" Iran and use chemical weapons against Iran's population -- most of whom were in the Kurdish region of Iran. And then he reminded all of the other governments of the United Nations that "the majority of nations and governments in the world have had no role in the creation of the current global crisis."
To top it off he hit at the heart of the institution at which he was speaking when he mentioned the hypocrisy of a United Nations that is not united and not democratic because a handful of nations "continue to control the Security Council".
But you will hear and read very little of any of the substance of Ahmadinejad's speech. The headlines will focus on his comments about the "mysterious" September 11th attacks -- as he referred to them -- and the usual delegates who walked out while he was speaking. There will be no reference to the delegates seen in the video coverage of the event who were enthusiastically clapping.
He is not, as you might be led to believe by the mainstream media, a pariah.
He is a controversial figure who refuses to address the serious issues in his own country but even there he is far from alone -- not one UN speaker troubles him or herself to discuss the serious inherent rights issues in their country, the class struggles, the poverty, the inequality and everything else that the government he or she leads is so intrinsically a part of.
Ahmadinejad is a religious fanatic and leader of a country where people are regularly tortured and killed in political prisons, corruption is widespread, and the wealth disparity is enormous. He has angered and hurt many people with his controversial statements. And he also spoke some truth at the UN General Assembly about war and the distribution of wealth and power.
It is undemocratic and trite to dismiss the value of those words, even if he doesn't practice what he preaches.
It is a sad state of world affairs when there is only one person who takes the UN and its handful of leaders to task when given the opportunity. It is an even sadder state of affairs that one man's words will change nothing for the powerless, poor and devastated majority of this world who suffer from those leaders' sins.
Follow Shirin Sadeghi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ShirinSadeghi
http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday#p/search/2/H09nvdPF0KQ
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The US imported about 400,000 slaves from Africa. The US bought most of those slaves from Muslim traders. Muslims themselves "abducted forcefully" about 14 million people from their homes in Africa. Any questions?
But if you repeat a lie often enough, in the minds of some, the lie becomes the truth.
Who abducted forcefully tens of millions of people from their homes in Africa and other regions of the world during the dark period of slavery, making them a victim of their materialistic greed?
Who imposed colonialism for over four centuries upon this world?
Who occupied lands and massively plundered resources of other nations, destroyed talents, and alienated languages, cultures and identities of nations?
Who triggered the first and second world wars, that left seventy millions killed and hundreds of millions injured or homeless. Who created the wars in Korean peninsula and in Vietnam?
Who imposed and supported for decades military dictatorship and totalitarian regimes on Asian, African, and Latin American nations?
Who used nuclear bomb against defenseless people, and stockpiled thousands of warheads in their arsenals?
Who used the mysterious September 11 incident as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq , killing, injuring, and displacing millions in two countries with the ultimate goal of bringing into its domination the Middle East and its oil resources?
Which country’s military spending exceeds annually a thousand billion dollars, more than the military budgets of all countries of the world combined?
Who are responsible for the world economic recession, and are imposing the consequences on America, Europe and the world in general?
Which governments are always ready to drop thousands of bombs on other countries, but ponder and hesitate to provide aid to famine-stricken people in Somalia or in other places?
"Who triggered the first and second world wars, that left seventy millions killed and hundreds of millions injured or homeless. BRITISH AND FRENCH started WWI and WWII
Who created the wars in Korean peninsula and in Vietnam? USA, USA, USA
We are USA, USA, USA. Just ask the Red Man, Yellow Man, Irish, Spent football players, Noriega and anyone else that does not continue to do what we want or have what we want.
Mossadegh was not democratically elected because he stopped vote counting as soon as his supporters collected minimally required number of seats in parliament. That's for starters. Then, who's "Shaw" that you claim that CIA put in Iran? Perhaps you're too nervous and meant Shah? But Iran was monarchy already and removal of Mossadegh didn't change that.
Then you bring Noriega ... splendid! Good match to Ahmadinejad. I just hope the latter will share the fate of the former.
Too bad America spent so much on Education and no one in America know the simple truth of the History of the British Empire and American Market Share Empire.
Wonder if we quit spending education fund on People Now, they would be as SMART as my Granddad and Father without the education.
Some how I think not. You have to have the will to learn and be aware. Better to watch another TV show about blood sucking vampires
"Who imposed and supported for decades military dictatorships in Asian, African and Latin American nations?" The USSR, US, China and the EU. Looks like that was a global initiative.
He even questioned the U.S. government's democratic values by asking "why should it not have been allowed to bring [Osama bin Laden] to trial?" Because we were trying to eliminate a rabid dog. For Ahmadinejad to even refer to civil trials is infuriating.
Approximately 3 billion people of the world live on less than 2.5 dollars a day, over 200 million live without even one sufficient meal on a daily basis. More than twenty thousand innocent and destitute children die every day in the world due to poverty." Maybe those petro-dollars Iran and all its mid-east neighbors generate could be used for something more constructive than suicide vests, missiles and car bombs.
“He mentioned the fact that long before Saddam Hussein was an enemy, he was an ally of the United States” Japan and Italy were our allies during the WWI. Iran was our ally until 1979. Alliances change, that’s how the real world works.
“It is undemocratic and trite to dismiss the value of those words, even if he doesn't practice what he preaches.” On the contrary, it’s very democratic and precisely why he (and this author) should be so dismissed.
And what a noxious bloom it is.
Some call it Anything But Capitalism, others call it Occidentalism:
"We cannot simply lump leftist enemies of “U.S. imperialism” together with Islamist radicals. Both groups might hate the global reach of American culture and corporate power, but their political goals cannot be usefully compared.
…A distaste for some aspects of modern Western, or American, culture is shared by many, but this is only rarely translated into revolutionary violence. Symptoms become interesting only when they develop into full-blown disease. Not liking Western pop culture, global capitalism, U.S. foreign policy, big cities, or sexual license is not of great moment; the desire to declare a war on the West for such a reason is."
Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, Occidentalism, p.5
A bunch of dead people, that's who. We didn't know any of them, and we're probably not related to them. I'm Polish, my grandparents came to US around 1910. We never owned slaves, never traded in them, did not benefit from slavery here in the US. Industry made the US, plantations contributed nothing of lasting value. We didn't start World Wars, Poland was just the venue.
The implication that "we" Europeans should have collective guilt is racism, pure and simple.
You surely would not mean Dronwing or Shock N Awe American would not to that for WMD and 911 involvement.
But then they Hung Saddam after they knew better shouting USA, USA, USA, even months after "mission accomplished"
Surprise he did not SAY America love to start civil wars and off the leaders that did better than they. But imagine the KNEE JERK reaction from the followers of blind patriotism then. So let me do it for him. I love to see American question EVIL