Madam Mubarak And The Superficial Peace Conference
The First Lady of Egypt, Suzan Mubarak, is talking peace and for some reason people are taking her seriously.
Yes, a peace conference held in Egypt’s famous resort town of Sharm el Sheikh consisting of 800 participants and 200 speakers and hosted by none other than the Dictators mistress herself.
The youth focused conference dared to title the get together as, “You Speak, We Listen”. Well Lady Mubarak, we’ve been speaking for a couple years now, yelling actually and I think its fair to say our cries for change have fallen on deaf ears (or ears that hear and like to throw opposing voices in jail).
Suzan Mubarak must feel inspired by her American First Lady counterparts, attending functions for causes you don’t care about has been a long standing tradition of American First Ladies. It gives them something to do and attempts to boost the public images of their husbands. Why not right? You know they have nothing better to do, the kids are all grown up and they have a full staff to take care of the cooking and cleaning duties. (hehe, send your angry letters to whisperofmadness@gmail.com)
Besides boredom I see no reason for Suzan Mubarak to bother with a gathering of this nature, the Middle East public is far too knowledgeable and critical about how things really are to respect a conference like this.
Mrs. Mubarak was even quoted as saying…
“Listening is a great start, but acting upon what you hear is more important.”
Meaning she’s either too oblivious to the country she lives in to understand the irony of those words or is too high on pain killers to know the difference.
Free the nay sayers from their torture cells first and then we’ll talk peace.
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I hope she realizes how much danger she’s putting these kids through. Encouraging them to “act” upon what they hear and then what? Watch them get imprisoned one by one by her husband’s team?
She’s one to talk. In a country where bloggers and journalists alike get interrogated, harassed, and imprisoned, and where activists get beaten in public protests, and where police brutality and Baha’i human rights abuses are not uncommon, why isn’t SHE acting upon what she hears?
Why isn’t she even attempting to bring these issues up and to free all the prisoners of conscience whose only crime is “acting” upon what they hear or even just expressing their opinions?
Shame on Ms. Mubarak for thinking anyone can take this conference seriously considering Egypt’s abysmal human rights record. We can’t blame her for being hungry for some good PR though. If she wanted real peace and real change she’ll do more than stand in front of a bunch of kids and preach tolerance when her husband is too busy silencing such voices of justice and free speech.
By the way, here is the article in question (get ready for some real laughs, folks.) It might seem like a lot of hopeful and nice talk but we all know it’s been done before and it’s bullshit until we see some real results.
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