Into the yoke of the status quo!
Despite
all the blandishments being dumped on her to corrupt her & turn her into a
toady for the status quo, Malala Yousafzai seems like a fine young girl at
heart. We're hoping that as she matures & becomes independent from the
regrettable guidance of her father & the yoke of establishment honors, she
will prove to be bigger in spirit & not subject to manipulation. That's a
long shot because they're working her over to make her indebted to them &
reluctant to express her own views. But it took some guts to even mention drone
assaults to Obama when she was there as window dressing for his wars.
The
purse from the Nobel Peace Prize is US$1.5 million so she's got a bundle of
money & most likely a line of "advisers" trying to get their
hands on it. She just raked in more dough from the World’s Children’s Prize
& donated $50,000 of that to the UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees
to help rebuild some of the 65 schools in Gaza used as refugee centers which
Israel bombed. It would have been preferable for her to give the money to
relief agencies in Gaza so the money was managed & controlled by
Palestinians. But UN reps are likely all over her trying to get their hands on
that money, where there will be no accountability.
In
handing over the dough to the UN she said, "We must all work to ensure
Palestinian boys & girls, & all children everywhere, receive a quality
education in a safe environment. Because without education, there will never be
peace." Who knows who wrote that speech? Not that she isn't capable of
writing her own eloquent words but she is now a marketable product with
jingoism experts writing ditties like for a commercial.
Education
is a good thing; the oppressed have always valued it. In the US, after the
Civil War ended, Blacks set up the first free public education system (for
whites & Blacks) in the US because they understood the transformative power
of education in overcoming inequality. But lack of education isn't the reason
there's no peace in Gaza. Israeli apartheid & ethnic cleansing are the
problem. Does young Malala understand that? If she does, would she be allowed
to express that by her handlers? Fat chance! Because if she ever does, the
awards will abruptly stop & the ditty writers will be composing slanders to
discredit her.
They've
a long way to go in corrupting Malala beyond redemption but it's not for their
lack of trying. They'll keep dumping prizes, they'll keep dumping dough,
they'll flatter & arm-twist & cajole, & maybe even threaten. But we
can hope--because human beings are complex & often wonderful--that she will
break free of the yoke trying to make her a mealy-mouthed champion of the
status quo spouting empty ditties like a UNICEF commercial. We can hope that
she will take her place with the forces of social transformation & speak
the truth--the whole truth.
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