Goodbye Fahd
So many nauseating obituaries, I have read.
But at least there is this one single jewel by Robert Fisk.
East, West
So few people dare speak the truth these days
So few
Goodbye Fahd
I am neither sad nor happy
just worried about who will clean up the mess
But at least there is this one single jewel by Robert Fisk.
East, West
So few people dare speak the truth these days
So few
Goodbye Fahd
I am neither sad nor happy
just worried about who will clean up the mess
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
6:46 AMI know a woman who truly is a lying, cheating, stealing, contriving, adulteress. Seriously, I have known her all of her life. She is also extremely sharp, very attractive, and has of course the job that she has always wanted, obviously, since she possesses the mental horsepower to perform any job she chooses. She also chose a husband, and he her, and together they chose to have two children who are presently under the age of three. Despite the passage of over a decade, it appears that the two failed to become one as some might say. Whether due to a lack of commitment, a heart hardened by an impenetrable shell of self-centeredness, love appears not to have entered the marriage, or if it did, it was easily ushered out by concerns so petty, so fleeting, so ephemeral as to be revealed as utterly ridiculous if listed on paper. It is not only love which is blind, selfishness when allowed to ferment with hatred produces a darkness so thick that a mother is unable to recognize her little ones and what is in their best interest; even when her attention is called to it. Her soon to be ex-husband is in only slightly better shape.
If the past year is any indication, these children will be the subject of an ongoing tit for tat, tug of war, between two self centered, immature, selfish adult animals for the rest of their minority and likely continuing into their own adulthood. That, from beginning to end, is the truth as near as I can tell, sparing everyone the sordid details.
To whom should I utter this truth? Sometimes I am sad, sometimes I am angry, but the mess which these two made will never be cleaned up. The best that can happen is that the parties move away from the mess and learn how to avoid making another mess in the future. Above all, I care about these two children, who as I know very well, need to be loved, to be secure, and to have love and respect for both of their parents.
There is another truth. These two self-centered individuals have, aside from the present mess, accomplished much. Both are gainfully employed at respectable jobs which pay decent salaries. Each comes from a fine family, each has numerous friends, and each has a reputation for being a decent hardworking honest individual.
I have no doubt that despite my sadness and my anger, I will speak the latter truth to these two little children. While in the future I may touch upon the former truth in a careful and appropriate way for their benefit, I most surely will not reveal it to them in the manner which I have stated it here. When I think about who would tell these children the former truth as I have presented it here, I can only imagine a person who cares nothing for these children. Or, perhaps, a person whose contempt for their parents is so strong that his need to expose every last sordid detail in vivid fashion outweighs any possible concern for the children’s wellbeing. To me, the question of which truth to focus upon has very little to do with daring, especially at this time.
12:01 PM
Anglo,
Children are always told your parents are good .... your parents know best ... you should respect your parents.
But what if your parents are assholes? .... should you still respect them ... should you still listen to them.
Imagine the poor child ... he can see for himself his centered immature parents acting silly .... yet everybody around him is telling him ... your parents are good.
Is he crazy? Is the rest of the world crazy? ... he doesn't know. Who should he trust? .... nobody .... because nobody is telling him the truth
6:24 PM
There is a time and place for every truth, though I have never found an appropriate time or place for falsehood. In my story, which sadly happens to be quite true, I said, “While in the future I may touch upon the former truth in a careful and appropriate way for their benefit, I most surely will not reveal it to them in the manner which I have stated it here.” So, with that statement, I wish to clarify or to reiterate that I am in no way advocating that a child be shielded from the truth. In the case of the children in my story, I believe that it is important, for their benefit, that they know the good truth about their parents, their achievements, their capabilities, and those various occasions when they have acted as people of whom everyone could be proud. As to the bad truth, that too should be revealed to them in a way and at a time when it would least injure them, and frankly, benefit them. The hypothetical child who grows up witnessing bad acting parents but being advised by everyone that his parents behavior is good simply does not exist in my perspective.
The point that I don’t want to lose, though, is what would one say about a person who, without so much as a breath of acknowledgement of these parents’ many good qualities, informed these children that their parents were absolute losers, self-centered, prevaricating, waste products. Assume that such person vividly describes in excruciating detail every wrong deed, every betrayal, every ugly low life act engaged in by these two people. What is it that we would know about such a person? He surely does not care about the parents. He surely does not care about the children. What he cares about is damaging the parents in the eyes of the children or damaging the children themselves; for if he truly cared about the children, he simply would not highlight the wrongs while ignoring the good. In no sense would I ever consider such an individual daring.
Now, I realize that this story is only remotely analogous to your post. You may well be right that (assuming that I am reading your post correctly) the absence of derogatory articles detailing Fahd’s misdeeds and those of his perceived cronies is the result of fear or a lack of daring. I don’t know. But I do not believe that the source of Robert Fisk’s pen is a daring heart and an honest soul. He may have both of those, but they are not what is moving his pen, at least in my view. My comment was intended merely to try to think along those lines: someone dies, most avoid the bad truth in the wake of his death and others immediately tell the bad while avoiding the good. Why? There is a time and place for every truth, and I believe that the timing of those who reveal it says something about what they truly care about.
One of the reasons your post was interesting to me was that I too had noticed an absence of the awful truth. I noticed a “good bye” post which, if I remember correctly, said nothing bad and very little if any good about the decedent. This blogger is in my mind an absolute giant, in heart and in mind, who had never before restrained his quick wit and sharp intellect when discussing the King or his reign. I thought that strange and wondered about it. Was it respect for the dead, respect for the people, a Muslim thing? I haven’t a clue even now, but I know that I want to emulate him, I know that it is the best and proper thing to do. I can’t really explain why, but my previous comment above was a feeble attempt. It is what I care about.
11:28 AM
Ok Anglo, Why don't you start ... tell us something positive about Fahd. Here is what I have to say about him.
In his youth he created such scandels with gambling in Monte Carlo that he lost record amounts of money and the news was published the next day in the news papers. As a result, King Faisel had to take way his passport and forbid him from leaving Saudi. He was drunckered, drug addict and a womenizer.
Later he graduated to rein over a country with one of the most corrupt and incompentant governments.
Saudi spends billions buying weapons from the west, yet when it's citizens were threatened with Iraqi invasion they had to ask for a foriegn army to protect them. What do you call that? ... wise leadership?
In oil rich Saudi there is poverty, no free media or independent institutions.
Have you heard ... ever ... of a country named after the royal family? ... there is only one in the whole world.
Fahd was a complete American puppet in the middle east.
He sponsored Saddam and Osamma bin Ladden in the billions.
His personal wealth was estimated to be 23 billion dollars ... where did this money come from? He didn't have the brains of Bill Gates ... you know.
I say Robert Fisk was very very restrained in his article.
3:28 PM
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3:36 PM
Surely you know by now from my various ramblings that I am little more than an ignoramus. Any facts that I could state would surely be news to no one else, and to be honest, one such as I runs the risk of repeating facts gleaned from sources that may in fact not be reliable. With that rather large caveat, I should simply direct you to the CNN link which you provided, but I will try to do better and hopefully clarifying the concept that is floating around in my head.
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud was Monarch of the great Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was the ultimate arbiter for the Judicial, Executive and Regulatory Authorities of the State. It was he, by royal decree who issued the Basic Laws of Governance along with other laws of governance. Under his leadership, and more recently upon delegation of his powers and duties to the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia became what it is today from what it was before. He has passed, and we extend “our heartfelt condolences to the Saudi and Arab nation on his passing. May he rest in peace” Giant aka the Great One
Now, Ihath, I grant you that the preceding paragraph is neither positive nor negative. Positives are contained in the CNN article, and my quick scan of the internet elsewhere revealed more accomplishments and positives. For each of those positives, any one who chooses can discount them, dispute them outright, or at a minimum point out that far more could have been done. But, I ask, what is the point? Why, at the time of his passing, would I want to do that? Would it even be appropriate at this time? My thoughts are presently that it is not appropriate, that daring or fearlessness is not the driving motivation for doing so now, but that something else is at work motivating the writer.
What is really funny is that in many discussions with the people with whom I come into contact with on a daily basis, I am not infrequently criticized as being “black or white”. “Can’t you see that its all shades of gray,” they say, nodding their heads in unison with smiles on their faces revealing the whites of their eyes as they glance back and forth knowingly at each other. Here, I am advancing a proposition that there are two truths about people, the good truth and the bad truth, which together make gray. Simplistic, I know, but bear with me please. Some focus on the good, others focus on the bad, and I am asking why. The other question I have is if a person genuinely cares about the people of Saudi Arabia, respects them as human beings with institutions and a government, how should such a person respond when informed of the death of their sovereign? I am not asking these questions facetiously, I am really trying to answer them, and as I said earlier, I think that my present answer is to emulate the Giant aka the Great One.
Another question that is banging around in my head is what do we or I mean by respect. I frequently appear before judges. When I was younger, I needed to remind myself before argument that these black robed individuals ate breakfast, drank coffee, and wiped themselves after using the bathroom just like I had earlier in the morning. I had to remind myself that these individuals who held power over my client's case were human just like me so that I could clear my mind enough to speak. Now, nearly 20 years later, my perspective has changed. Sometimes I even wonder whether they are alert, well fed, and clean. They are completely and plainly human to me now, and I am more worried whether they will understand the argument than whether they will surprise me with a question I had not considered before. However, I still treat every black robed man or woman with respect, even if I know to a certainty that the cranium of one is not as full as another. This respectfulness is not because I am afraid that disrespect will harm me later (though it surely would). My respect for them, each of them despite their failings is genuine. It is because of their position, their function, which if one understands what that is, one can only have respect. There is an immense trust placed in our judicial system, the responsibility of a judge is truly heavy, and it is an amazing thing to be a part of its administration. That is about as close as I can come to explaining why I feel that the King and his people deserve different at this time.
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