“The law is a ass”
Charles Dickens knew a thing or two.
His use of English grammar as expressed through the words of the inimitable Mr Bumble, might seem quaint by today’s standards, but there’s nothing wrong with his perception, his clarity and his honesty. Here’s what Charles Dickens wrote in “Oliver Twist more than 170 years ago but with direct relevance to events playing out before our eyes to this very day.
“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.”
Note the last few words: “…the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience”.
The modern world seems to have an undying penchant for ignoring the lessons of experience.
Question: When is the law not the law?
Answer: When it applies to the Arab world.
Sudanese dictator and genocide practitioner Omar Hassan al-Bashir is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest order issued on March 4 this year. He has been accused of giving Arab Muslim militias a free rein and active logistical and political support in the genocide of three to four hundred thousand black Africans and the forced expulsion of almost three million people from their homes in a massive – and widely reported – ethnic cleansing drive.
Democratic countries the world over are sworn to implement al-Bashir’s arrest should he step within their jurisdiction. Within the Arab world, however, he travels freely.
Not only that, he is given the full red-carpet treatment as an honoured head of state. Even by countries as apparently “pro-Western” as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
There’s an increasingly serious disconnect between the abysmal ethical record of the Arab world where black Africans can be slaughtered with impunity, and the moral code of the democratic world which lives by certain minimal standards of decency and civilised behaviour.
Some of the worst offenders on human rights issues are being unquestioningly protected by the Arab world. Saudi Arabia gave shelter to disgraced dictator and mass-murderer Idi Amin. Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s grand welcome in Qatar is merely the latest in a string of similar travesties of justice and moral lapses in the Arab world.
The Arab world’s compact refusal to implement the law is not just a warning about the fragility of the legal system as it is openly flouted. It also calls into question the civilized world’s continued willingness to deal with a major global political and economic bloc that openly demonstrates its contempt for the most basic foundations of civilized society.
Yet these are the people with whom we do lucrative business, every single day. What price black African lives?
Related articles in English:
Washington Post, New Republic, Jewish World Review, Newsweek, MidEastWeb, Melanie Phillips, 2, Världen Idag, JPost, YahooNews,
Related articles in French:
Le Figaro,
Related articles in Swedish:
SvD, Nyhetskanalen, HD, GA, SVT, DN, NT,
Articles from this website on related topics:
IlyaMeyer, IlyaMeyer, IlyaMeyer, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
His use of English grammar as expressed through the words of the inimitable Mr Bumble, might seem quaint by today’s standards, but there’s nothing wrong with his perception, his clarity and his honesty. Here’s what Charles Dickens wrote in “Oliver Twist more than 170 years ago but with direct relevance to events playing out before our eyes to this very day.
“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.”
Note the last few words: “…the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience”.
The modern world seems to have an undying penchant for ignoring the lessons of experience.
Question: When is the law not the law?
Answer: When it applies to the Arab world.
Sudanese dictator and genocide practitioner Omar Hassan al-Bashir is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest order issued on March 4 this year. He has been accused of giving Arab Muslim militias a free rein and active logistical and political support in the genocide of three to four hundred thousand black Africans and the forced expulsion of almost three million people from their homes in a massive – and widely reported – ethnic cleansing drive.
Democratic countries the world over are sworn to implement al-Bashir’s arrest should he step within their jurisdiction. Within the Arab world, however, he travels freely.
Not only that, he is given the full red-carpet treatment as an honoured head of state. Even by countries as apparently “pro-Western” as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
There’s an increasingly serious disconnect between the abysmal ethical record of the Arab world where black Africans can be slaughtered with impunity, and the moral code of the democratic world which lives by certain minimal standards of decency and civilised behaviour.
Some of the worst offenders on human rights issues are being unquestioningly protected by the Arab world. Saudi Arabia gave shelter to disgraced dictator and mass-murderer Idi Amin. Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s grand welcome in Qatar is merely the latest in a string of similar travesties of justice and moral lapses in the Arab world.
The Arab world’s compact refusal to implement the law is not just a warning about the fragility of the legal system as it is openly flouted. It also calls into question the civilized world’s continued willingness to deal with a major global political and economic bloc that openly demonstrates its contempt for the most basic foundations of civilized society.
Yet these are the people with whom we do lucrative business, every single day. What price black African lives?
Related articles in English:
Washington Post, New Republic, Jewish World Review, Newsweek, MidEastWeb, Melanie Phillips, 2, Världen Idag, JPost, YahooNews,
Related articles in French:
Le Figaro,
Related articles in Swedish:
SvD, Nyhetskanalen, HD, GA, SVT, DN, NT,
Articles from this website on related topics:
IlyaMeyer, IlyaMeyer, IlyaMeyer, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Etiketter: Darfur, English, ethnic cleansing, genocide, ICC, Sudan
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