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|Monday Oct. 8, 2001 | BACK | NEXT A CANADIAN HERO
by
Angelo Persichilli
So much for the hard work of all those responsible people who’ve been
trying hard not to characterize the events of Sept. 11 as a fight between
cultures, or groups or religions; but voicing it as a fight between a few
crazy people against the world, period In the middle of this responsible approach, here comes Thobani, who is the former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and one of those few post-Cold War diehard anti-Americans who is unable to rearrange the script of her lectures.
She,
like many of her former comrades, was already purring at the news conference
of Cowboy Bush announcing the indiscriminate bombing of Afghanistan. The rusty
old-fashioned leftist machine was ready to roll: «Here we go again with the
bloody Americans shooting their way,» they were ready to chant, and
immediately marched around the world with their banners proclaiming,
"peace," and "death to America," in one breath. But
Pistolero Bush didn’t bit.
Even the Taliban representatives have tried hard to provoke a
military reaction: «The Americans are not going to react because their are
cowards,» said a spokesperson for the Talibans. Everything was ready, but
they made a major mistake. They underestimated George W. Bush. It didn’t
work, sorry Thobani: there are no indiscriminate bombs, just diplomacy.
Nonetheless, without fresh clips to sustain her rant, Thobani had to
resort to the past, unloading onto U.S. foreign policy and blaming it for
every crime in the world but the killing of Julius Caesar
She even considers the U.S. responsible for the dramatic
situation in Iraq, because the U.S. dared to impose sanctions against a regime
that has provoked more casualties than the first American atomic bomb.
Of course, Ms. Thobani didn’t bother to mention that Saddam
Hussein is also responsible for a genocide against Kurds and war against Iran
provoking the death of a million people. Yes, the Americans had an interest in
selling weapons, but can she explain what Hussein and the Iranian government
were fighting for? Women's liberation? The best part of her speech was, of course, her rant
against the western world: «There will be no emancipation for women anywhere
on this planet until the western domination of this planet is ended.» Wow. We
are dealing with a hero here! Like all heroes, she has decided to be on the front line
in the fight for the emancipation of women and the front line is right here in
Canada. She, unlike the women who have cowardly decided to remain in
Afghanistan and enjoy the freedom and social justice compliments of the
emancipated Taliban regime, she has decided to risk her life and challenging
the nasty Canadian secret police and speak out right here in Canada. How
brave. Last week, despite the deadly threat from RCMP pepper
spray, she ventured into an unfriendly turf, the Women’s Resistance
Conference and declared war against the "western domination." Afghan
women must be very proud of her. According to our sources the Taliban minister
of Culture has offered her a sabbatical for teaching at the University of
Kabul some courses on how to promote women in politics.
"This conference is about breaking the silence," she said
last week. She did.
It was also an opportunity for Hedy Fry, Canada's Minister of
Multiculturalism, who happened to be at the conference, to make a statement.
The normally talkative minister sat on the stage, remained silent for the all
speech and immediately fled once it was over. Who said that Ms. Fry never
shuts up? |