How about an international award for hypocrisy?
Arising out the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite, the Nobel Prize is universally recognized as the most prestigious award in the fields of peace-making, economics, chemistry, physics, medicine and literature. How about an international award – without the gold medal, the diploma and the money – for hypocrisy?
Such an award could be called the Lebon Prize (reversing Nobel).
If there was such an award, the statements of European and American leaders in the immediate aftermath of Russia and China’s veto of the Security Council resolution to end the killing in Syria suggest two most obvious nominees for it.
One is William Hague, Britain’s Foreign Secretary.
In the House of Commons he pronounced Bashar al-Assad’s regime to be “doomed” because there is “no way it can recover its credibility.” That may very well be the case in the long term, but in my view that Hague statement was somewhat naive at the time he made it. For its short to mid-term survival at the time of writing, and unless visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is seeking to engineer Bashar al-Assad’s departure from office in a face-saving way that will protect Russia’s interests, the Syrian regime doesn’t need credibility in the outside world. It needs only enough weapons and the will to go on killing its own people. (That said there can be no doubt that Bashar al-Assad and/or his Alawite generals took the Russian and Chinese vetoes as a green light to escalate the killing. Also to be noted is that Bashar al-Assad was not the only Arab leader to draw a particular conclusion from Mubarak’s downfall. “If our people take to the streets demanding regime change, shoot them!”)
But the particular Hague statement that prompts my suggestion that he be nominated for a Lebon Prize for hypocrisy was this one. By exercising their veto “Russia and China have placed themselves on the wrong side of Arab and international opinion.”
The obvious implication is that it’s not good politics and policy to be on the wrong side of that opinion. Really? Then how do we explain the fact that all the governments of the Western world, led by America, are on the wrong side of it because of their support for the Zionist state of Israel right or wrong – unending occupation, on-going ethnic cleansing and all? There is a one-word answer. Hypocrisy.
The second most obvious nominee for a Lebon Prize for hypocrisy is Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN. In condemning the Russian and Chinese vetoes, she said, “For months this Council has been held hostage by a couple of members.”
Given that for the Security Council has been held hostage for decades by American vetoes to protect Israel from being called to account for its crimes, that Rice statement is – what I can say without resorting to use of the “F” word? – hypocrisy most naked and taken to its highest level
No doubt readers will have other suggestions, probably many, for nominations for a Lebon Prize for hypocrisy.
Footnote
Hague also condemned China and Russia for “betraying the Syrian people”. It apparently doesn’t matter that the British and all other Western governments have been betraying the Palestinians for decades. There really is no end and no limit to the hypocrisy.
Vera Gottlieb:
February 10th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Wasn’t it just reported that UK military is involved in Homs, ‘aiding’ the ‘revolutionaries’? As someone wrote some time ago…it is the Anglo/Saxon axis that bears watching, not the ‘axis of evil’.
maryam:
February 10th, 2012 at 11:49 am
I would definitely nominate Barack Obama (after stripping him of the Nobel Peace prize he got so unfairly in 2009), for the extrajudicial killing of Anwar al-Awlaki and for threatening the American peace activists who were to sail on the Audacity to Hope to Gaza last year with charges of material support for terrorism. I could go on but these are two of his worst human rights crimes.
International award for hypocrisy | The Examined Life:
February 10th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
[...] award for hypocrisy February 9, 2012By wkAlan Hart recently wrote this emotional but accurate article on his blog, asking for the introduction of an international Award for Hypocrisy as a consequence of the [...]
James:
February 10th, 2012 at 7:55 pm
One thing is for sure. It is much more easier to win the Lebon award for hypocrisy then it is to show those achievements that would win a person the Nobel. Why do these people do this? What are they expecting to gain? What should it profit a man if he gain the whole world and in the end lose his own soul? After the ending of the world as we know it is finally finished, I hope that many of you have made the right decisions to walk upright, honest and in that direction the Lord God leads. I would like to meet you on that other side.
Rehmat:
February 18th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
I will not be surprised if William Hague do receive the prize on recommendations by Conservative friends of Israel. In 2010 – Haque told them “I am a natural friend of Israel”, and to prove it he asserted that “it would be a mistake to ever rule out military action against Iran”.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/hague-i-will-fight-iran-for-israel/
Steve Meikle:
February 27th, 2012 at 4:48 am
The Nobel Peace prize is already an award for hypocrisy, and it does not even need to be spelled backwards or anything.
They gave it to Obama, a war criminal in the manner of Bush, though a little more articulate in his presentation.
I wrote to the Nobel people telling them they had reduced the peace prize to a meaningless trinket by giving it to a war criminal, but of course they did not reply.
maryam:
February 27th, 2012 at 8:51 am
I imagine the Nobel committee is very embarrassed at their poor judgment – at least they should be. I’ve heard there is a movement to ask the prize be given to Bradley Manning. He deserves it much more than anyone I can think of.
Newshit 27 02 2012 | cuthulansnewshit:
February 27th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
[...] How about an international award – without the gold medal, the diploma and the money – for hypocrisy? Such an award could be called the Lebon Prize (reversing Nobel). If there was such an award, the statements of European and American leaders in the immediate aftermath of Russia and China’s veto of the Security Council resolution to end the killing in Syria suggest two most obvious nominees for it. One is William Hague, Britain’s Foreign Secretary By exercising their veto “Russia and China have placed themselves on the wrong side of Arab and international opinion.” The second most obvious nominee for a Lebon Prize for hypocrisy is Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN. In condemning the Russian and Chinese vetoes, she said, “For months this Council has been held hostage by a couple of members.” Given that for the Security Council has been held hostage for decades by American vetoes to protect Israel from being called to account for its crimes, that Rice statement is – what I can say without resorting to use of the “F” word? – hypocrisy most naked and taken to its highest level http://www.alanhart.net/how-about-an-international-award-for-hypocrisy/#more-1806 [...]