It is hard to ignore the works of Robert Fisk if one wants to construct an authentic image of the Middle East crises. Fisk’s books Pity of the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East, and The Age Of The Warrior are widely acclaimed. His brand of journalism would put many in the same field to shame simply because he doesn’t count on the official myths. His approach is to be unhesitatingly on the side of the victim because he loves to investigate the “why” of manmade disasters.
His analysis bares “Lies, Misreporting, and the Catastrophe in the Middle East,” and precisely this was his topic of talk on Monday, September 20, 2010, at 7 PM in Student Union Redwood Room, California State University Sacramento.
‘CSUS Middle East Cultural Association’ and ‘Sacramento Physicians for Social Responsibility’ collaborated to arrange Fisk’s talk. More than two hundreds people listened to the world renowned Middle East correspondent for the Independent (UK) A lively discussion followed after the lecture. Fisk has lived in the Middle East for three decades. He is recipient of International Journalist of the Year seven times.
Fisk started his lecture by focusing on the problem of everyday misuse of words. The most mistreated word, according to him, is the ‘terror’ in our lexicon. Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets recycle everything they are fed by the official narratives. The authorities have become so much fascinated with the word terror, that its repetition by them almost creates a sort of symphony. It seduces one and all to buy what the western media displays. Journalists appeared to have become verbal partner in telling lies, misreporting, and making Middle East the nightmare of the west. It doesn’t say anything about the tale of gore and blood, a living and compounding tragedy of human relationship right under Western supervision and tax money.
The efforts at peace-making have turned out to be so redundant that their predictable collapse is not hard to imagine. The ritualistic body language at the peace summits is the same when President Clinton once had read some phrases from Koran, and Yasser Arafat said, ‘thank you’ repeatedly.
“Peace of the Brave” phrase used by Arafat in 1995 has become so much overused that it signifies nothing more than our posturing. Similarly, phrases such as ‘road map to peace’ and ‘blueprint for peace and reconciliation’ define hardly anything about Israel’s occupation, demolition, and Palestinians’ homelessness. Fisk finds modern journalist preposterously dishonest and babyish in trivializing the pain of victims.
Commenting on the ongoing peace process, Fisk regretted that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority was negotiating only on 10.9% of the Palestine. Fisk’s view of Middle East Peace talks was questioned by someone from the audience, but he elaborated that the negotiations don’t address the core of the crisis.
In his matter-of-fact style, Fisk referred to historical wrongs that often test our fairness and humane concerns. In this category, the denials of Armenian Genocide by Turkish governments become pronounced. A systematic liquidation of 160000 Armenian in the wake of the First World War is undoubtedly a holocaust. He also criticized the denial of extermination of Jews in holocaust by some Islamic countries as outrageous.
Fisk pointed out that Robert Holbrook US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan was strictly told not to mess up with Kashmir issue. The deletion of India is a sign of half measures adopted to deal with problems of justice.
Fisk wondered why foreign policies of the US and Britain don’t take any cue from experts’ advice. Billions of dollars is being spent on specialized fields of study in universities, but there is a total disconnect between the perspectives and policies.
He stressed that the reality is beyond the language of clichés, fictionalized versions; and apathetic attitudes, rhetorical and persuasive talk shows (peace talks). It is the duty of modern journalists to report the truth from the heart of the catastrophe, rather than from the center of the official versions which are full of outmoded wisdom such as ‘peace of the brave.’
Robert got thunderous applause for his straight talk on Middle East catastrophe. He answered an array of questions such as gross distortion of history by western supported governments, fraudster implication of ‘non-violence’ and the decline of mainstream media.
Comments