What's Left
February 13, 2008
Spielberg: Chauvinist in humanitarian drag
By Stephen Gowans
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/spielberg-chauvinist-in-humanitarian-drag/
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has withdrawn as artistic adviser to
the
2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing because China has failed to pressure Sudan
to end the war in Darfur.
China is developing oil fields in the embattled region of Sudan and
Spielberg wants Beijing to use its clout to end the insurgency in the west
of the country.
Arguing that "Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility" for
the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur, Spielberg blames China for failing
to do "more to end the continuing human suffering there." (1)
"China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan
continue to provide it with the op****tunity and obligation to press for
change," Spielberg says. (2)
But while Spielberg wants China to use its influence in Khartoum, he has
released no statements, of which I'm aware, to press Wa****ngton to use its
influence to end the larger humanitarian catastrophes in Somalia and Iraq,
both of which are directly attributable to the actions of his own country,
and therefore should be well within the grasp of the US government to end.
China's ability to end the Darfur conflict, however, is a far more
uncertain
matter.
Three of the five rebel groups fighting Sudanese forces in Darfur are
unwilling to negotiate a peace, according to the UN's special envoy to
Darfur, Jan Eliasson. (3) This makes it difficult for Khartoum, let alone
China, to bring an end to the conflict, unless ending the conflict means
Khartoum capitulating and handing Darfur and its oil assets to the rebels
and their Western backers. This, of course, would suit strategists in the
US
State Department, to say nothing of the US oil industry.
By comparison, ending the much larger humanitarian catastrophes in Somalia
(with 850,000 displaced, Somalia has been called Africa's largest and most
ignored catastrophe) and Iraq (four million refugees and hundreds of
thousands dead as a result of the US invasion) is directly within the
capability of Wa****ngton. (4)
The US simply has to order Ethiopia, which it directed to illegally invade
Somalia in December 2006, to withdraw. (5) If the Ethiopians balk, cutting
off the rich flow of military aid Wa****ngton rewards the Meles regime
with,
will exert needed pressure. (6)
As regards the tragedy of Iraq, there can be no greater ameliorative act
than immediate withdrawal of foreign troops. Withdrawal should occasion no
fear of touching off a full-scale civil war. The Pentagon's own research
shows that Iraqis attribute sectarian tensions to the US military presence
and ardently wish to see the Americans leave. (7) If a civil war were to
ensue, it could hardly be worse than the suffering the US continues to
visit
upon Iraq in lost lives, mangled bodies, rampant disease, hunger and
homelessness - far in excess of the tragedy in Darfur.
If China's ties to the government of Sudan provide it with the op****tunity
and obligation to press for change, doesn't Spielberg's visibility, and
his
status as a US citizen, provide him with the op****tunity and obligation to
press for change where his own government has created far greater human
suffering?
In the fall of 2002, Spielberg said he "could not not sup****t" the Bush
administration's policies on Iraq (8). Today, he seeks to embarrass China
over Sudan, another oil-rich country Wa****ngton seeks regime change in.
And
as far a Spielberg is concerned, the US-authored humanitarian catastrophes
in Somalia and Iraq are best ignored. Are these the actions of a
humanitarian, or of a chauvinist whose concern for the suffering of others
stops at the door of, and indeed caters to, US ruling class interests?
(1) New York Times, February 13, 2008.
(2) Ibid.
(3) New York Times, February 8, 2008.
(4) Displacement of Somalis, Wa****ngton Post, November 14, 2007; Iraqi
refugees, The Independent (UK), July 30, 2007. There are a number of
estimates of deaths in Iraq due to the US invasion: The Iraqi Body Count,
47,668; World Health Organization, 151,000; Johns Hopkins, 600,000;
British
polling firm ORB, 1.2 million (mid-range estimates.)
(5) US General John Abizaid visited the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles
Zenawi, in November, 2006. Ethiopia invaded Somalia the next month. "The
US
provided key intelligence from spy satellites.CIA agents traveled with the
Ethiopian troops, helping direct operations.US forces have carried out at
least four attacks inside the country in the past 12 months." The
Independent (UK), February 9, 2008.
(6) Stephen Gowans, "Looking for Evil in all the Wrong Places,"
www.gowans.wordpress.com, November 20, 2007,
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/looking-for-evil-in-all-the-wrong-places/
(7) Wa****ngton Post, December 19, 2007.
(8) In September 2002, Spielberg pledged sup****t for the gathering US war
on
Iraq. "Film director Spielberg lines up with Bush war drive," WSWS,
October
3, 2002, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/spie-o03.shtml
|
