Soccer Dad

On hate and new relations

At the end of the NY Times article on the fallout of Ahmadinejad's speech, the paper reports:

Those who supported the Obama administration's attending the conference said their attitude was not altered by Mr. Ahmadinejad's remarks. "It is unfortunate that the inappropriate and out-of-line remarks of Ahmadinejad would obscure the only international forum to address racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia," Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, said in a statement by the Congressional Black Caucus.

Did it occur to Representative Lee that giving a platform to someone so steeped in hatred, was not the best way to fight "...racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia?" I notice that the title of the conference didn't even specifically mention the world's oldest hatred.

The point of the matter is that the very countries who use xenophobia and other hatreds as tools of maintaining power, are the ones most interested in the conference as it allows them to proclaim their opposition to one of the things they use to keep their hold on power. It is more a conference on hypocrisy than anything. (I would guess that efforts to promote economic growth worldwide would likely do more to banish these destructive forces. Certainly almost anything would be constructive than having a bunch of tyrants getting together to issue meaningless proclamations.)

The Washington Post notes this irony:

Ahmadinejad, who just a week ago had suggested that Iran was ready for a new relationship with the United States, blamed America and its allies for a long list of ills, including the world economic crisis. He suggested that the Western model of economic liberalism was exhausted and that Western leaders, in their efforts to contain the crisis, "are simply thinking about maintaining power and wealth."

Yes criticizing the United States and jailing one of its citizens is a great way to start a new relationship.

Crossposted on Yourish.