Musafir's Musings: Between The President's Mouth and His Acts

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Between The President's Mouth and His Acts

A Wide Gap * Brits Bend Over Backward to Appease Muslims * GOP Candidates Deserting The President's War

Who is Nursultan Nazarbayev ? President of Kazakhstan, an autocratic ruler who has a history of suppressing dissent. Reported to be involved in a bribery scandal, he is a friend of President Bush. Peter Baker writes in the Post: "President Bush launched an initiative this month to combat international kleptocracy, the sort of high-level corruption by foreign officials that he called "a grave and corrosive abuse of power" that "threatens our national interest and violates our values." The plan, he said, would be "a critical component of our freedom agenda." Three weeks later, the White House is making arrangements to host the leader of Kazakhstan, an autocrat who runs a nation that is anything but free and who has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pocketing the bulk of $78 million in bribes from an American businessman. Not only will President Nursultan Nazarbayev visit the White House, people involved say, but he also will travel to the Bush family compound in Maine."

Nazarbayev's upcoming visit, according to analysts and officials, offers a case study in the competing priorities of the Bush administration at a time when the president has vowed to fight for democracy and against corruption around the globe. Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington.

Nazarbayev is hardly the only controversial figure received at the top levels of the Bush administration. In April, the president welcomed to the Oval Office the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who has been accused of rigging elections. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, who has been found to have millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts.

Political Correctness or Fear of Terrorism ?

The Guardian reported that a Bangladeshi/British photographer has been the victim of censorship, apparently in an effort to stop offending Muslim audience. Syra Miah's exhibition included "image of a semi-naked woman"! Astounding.

The Guardian
Charlotte Higgins, Arts Correspondent

A Bangladeshi-British photographer is complaining that her work has been censored by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A documentary work made in Bangladesh by Syra Miah and shown as part of the museum's Art and Islam exhibitions was removed because it contained an image of a semi-naked woman.

The museum said it had been advised some days after the show opened to the public on July 8 that the image could offend a Muslim audience. However, Ms Miah, 29, rejected the suggestion. The image had not been mentioned by visitors in the museum's comments book, on its website, or indeed by her own family, "who are very conservative", she said.

Article continues
"I felt that the whole message behind my show had been undermined by this censorship," she said. "During the editing process the curators seemed to want images in the exhibition that portrayed Bangladesh as another colourful Asian country. Sadly, the removal of this image, the only image in the show that could be interpreted as gritty, confirmed my growing cynical view that the museum wanted to perpetuate a myth about Muslim societies: that nudity isn't tolerated. In Bangladeshi society - at least the one I witnessed - it clearly is.

"The partially dressed figure in the image was actually a mentally ill woman who had made a home of a bus shelter. She was looked after by locals who made sure she was out of danger and fed. I think this shows a compassionate view of Islamic society."

Midterm Elections

The heading for E.J. Dionne's column reads "Slowly Sidling to Iraq's Exit". One gets the feeling that the sidling could become a stampede. The fear is palpable. "By Election Day, how many Republican candidates will have come out against the Iraq war or distanced themselves from the administration's policies?" But don't expect the warrior in the White House and VP "Last Throes" Cheney to ever admit that things are not going well in Iraq.

August 2006 will be remembered as a watershed in the politics of Iraq. It is the month in which a majority of Americans told pollsters that the struggle for Iraq was not connected to the larger war on terrorism. They thus renounced a proposition the administration has pushed relentlessly since it began making the case four years ago to invade Iraq.

That poll finding, from a New York Times-CBS News survey, came to life on the campaign trail when Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), one of the most articulate supporters of the war, announced last Thursday that he favored a time frame for withdrawing troops.

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Bush Iraq GOP Britain Muslims Syra Miah