"The British don't care about us"
I watched the first depressing few hours of UK election results with some fellow Iraqi refugees here in Jordan, who have fled here following death threats. We cried as we watched the British people endorsing the Blair regime, despite the devestation it has wrought in Iraq. The only real controversy in the last few weeks, and generally in our media, has been whether Blair lied to the British people about Iraq. But the real issue is the 100,000+ Iraqis who have been killed, and many more injured and traumatised, over the last two years. This demands a radical change in policy and a dramatic increase in aid so that Iraqis have genuine freedom and reconstruction. When I was in Basra a few weeks ago I saw the infrastructure still in chaos, the hospital poorly stocked, the university still lacking most of the looted equipment. People told me again and again that although the British were committing few direct human rights abuses, they have broken all their promises of rebuilding even the little corner of Southern Iraq they have been alotted.
"The British people don't really care about us," said one of my friends. "Sure, 2 million people turned out in Hyde Park on 15 Feb 2003, but they only stood there for a few hours and then went back to their comfortable homes feeling self-righteous. If they really cared they would have all sat down outside Parliament and refused to move until Blair committed not to invade. If they really cared then they would have been loudly challenging the government for the last two years. If they really cared they would have visited Iraq to stand alongside us. If they really cared then the smallest thing they could have done was vote Blair out, but they wouldn't even do this."
4 comments:
Once again, I see this matter of weather it was right or not for the so called coalltion to invade iraq. This is not the answer to anyones problems, and solidarity alone will not provide the most basic services that the Iraqis are in need of. The point now is not to bitch on (like the politicians have for so long now)about weather it was right or wrong and who lied to who (although these are relevant issues), but to say well........what are we going to do/ can we do now? How can we make life better for these Iraqis who are in dire need of the most basic of basic needs. The only conclusion I can come to is that it is FAR too easy for people to critisize but far harder to present any kind of feesable alternative or way of moving forward. Maybe its that people just feel frustrated. I know I do.
More than 1 in 4 of the people who voted in the UK election, did so for a party that opposed the war. Even more if you include the tens of thousands who voted for anti-war Labour MPs. And many more, like me, did the whole "clothes peg on nose" vote for Labour in Labour-Tory marginal seats to limit the numbers of Conservative MPs being elected. On the doorstep when out canvassing I met hundreds of people who said they would not vote for Tony Blair / Labour again because of the war. Judging from the defeats of the Labour candidates in those constituencies, those people were true to their word. The 'fault' (if that's what you call it) of another Labour victory lies not with voters, but with our electoral system. When a party can form a government with a reasonable majority when it got only 36% of the vote (and only 21.5% of the total number of those eligible to vote), then there is something seriously amiss. This democratic deficit needs to be fixed - with a change to a more proportional system - and that is what I and many others will be campaigning for in the coming months / years.
Malcolm - yes, we definitely need electoral reform (preferably one which gets rid of the state altogether), but until that happens supporting labour because they are the 'lesser of two evils' is not the way forward. By doing so you are playing precisely into the hands of the powers that be, who have us completely stiched up by pointing to the evil other. Only when people have the courage to vote for what they really want, rather than what they are told they can have, will we see real change.
PS - justin, the ray of hope in the sea of darkness as far as the elections goes is that the greens did astoundingly well across the country. in brighton we more than doubled the vote for the general election, nearly finishing a close second. in oxford we now have five county councillors - up from one last year! (the down side is that we've now gone from a hung council to a very tory dominated one who want to bring back cars to oxford, etc.)
I am not british, I am austrian and my country did not send ansy troups to iraq. also was I from the beginning against this war and do hope that peace will come very soon and that people can live in dignity, freedom and peace. but I hope that for every part in the world that is shattered by war. iraq is not the only one. and I hope also for aereas for instance in africa, where there is nothing to eat, illnesses and in some aereas even war.
I cannot stand there, besides the people, in their country. I have a job here, I have to make a living. and I cannot sit every time so long in front of a parlament until it does what I want. I have joined a lot of demonstrations. but I am not working for an NGO.
It is not true, that I don't care for the iraqi people. but I care for everyone and I cannot be there for everyone. We are all only human and we can do what is in our power, the power of character, personality, family, social circumstances, money, time and so on;
There are people here who need me, my grndmother, my parents, my children.
and then, I must say that I admire everyone who lives in iraq and who goes there, journalists and helpers and so on. I think I am also too frightend to go there. I do not want to die or to be kidnapped; I hope every day that there won't be any bombs any more. I try to put me in the situaton of iraqi people and, even if I am far away from konowing really how it could be to live there kow, I think it must be horrible and I do know what it means to loose somebody who died to early. nobody wants to live in war and dispair, me neither.
so, please understand. people around the world do care about you, but they are only ordinary people who live their lives and cannot give them radically up for others. iraqu people would not either, for people in other countries in war. there are always some strong people, like the helpers, who do this things and that is amazing and great and I hope that there will be more. but first, politicians have to start thinking in a human way, hot in an economic one.
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