The world needs hope

Is our present world running like a football player, dribbling between hypocrisy, bad faith and incompetence? It seems so looking at some recent events.

US President Barack Obama’s trip to the Middle East first appeared as a quintessence of hypocrisy, considering he had nothing to tell local populations but the Israelis, how much he loved them. Actually, Obama is not hypocritical, he is simply not interested. He does not want to commit because he has enough to do elsewhere. He withdrew American forces from Iraq and will do so soon in Afghanistan. He will not waste time and money in Syria (others do it for him). Iran, is for sure an issue for the American president, but the Arab divide between Sunnis and Shiites and the thirst of revenge for the Iraqi loss has given him time to postpone a solution.

The Arab League Summit in Doha has also played its part. The beginning of one of the speeches at the summit sums it all: “As customary every year, the Palestine issue remains on top of our interests and agenda”. There is nothing new about this.

As for Syria, an exiled engineer who left his country 30 years ago to dodge military service was perhaps selected as ‘the best of a bad list’ for a would-be prime minister. Washington and others now have their man in place.

When totally unable to manage a country — see Egypt or Tunisia — the Muslim Brotherhood’s ability to manipulate was once again attested. They call it “a step towards democracy”. And when Israel and Turkey decide to put their dispute aside so that they can share energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, they call it “a step towards peace”.

Hypocrisy has no limits. Some weeks ago, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi justified the recourse to bribes. “They are,” he said, “necessary when you negotiate with companies or governments from the third world.” He is presently running for a Minister of Justice position in the government Italians may have one day. However, France did even better: The Minister of Budget, Jerome Cahuzac, has just admitted that despite his repeated denials, he actually set up a fiscal laundering scheme through the opening of bank accounts in Geneva and Singapore.

Bad faith comes second, but is still repulsive. France is, for instance, a country where three-fifths of the National Assembly and Senate members must agree to change rhetorical details in the presidential function; but a simple law is enough to allow homosexual couples to adopt children. It is why people go to the streets. A demonstration took place two weeks ago, comprising more than one million citizens. Police forces were too busy firing tear gas shells on families and children, to make proper calculations. I myself witnessed children walking peacefully, receiving gas jets from hysterical policemen. The head of Paris police justified it as “self-defence”. I wonder what should happen next to make the French President, Francois Hollande, listen? But Hollande himself can fall victim to bad faith, as happened in Tunisia some weeks ago. “France, Degage!”, read some posters and hastily commented by ‘experts’ who just forgot to point out that they were made by the followers of the Al Nahda government. Afterwards, one million Tunisians demonstrated when a respected secular politician, Shukri Belaid, was shot dead by terrorists. France was required to help preserve a likely unique democratic reference in North Africa. Now, the reason why France is fighting jihadists in Mali and supporting them in Syria illustrates how bad faith can slide into incompetence.

Cyprus’s financial salvage was described by many as another example of European stupidity. Yet, one can marvel at the British and Russian press choking with rage at the taxation of customers’ deposits. The fact is that Cyprus — contributing only 0.2 per cent of EU’s GDP — has been known for years as a major platform for money laundering. Should European tax payers have paid for the inheritors of the Russian ‘gangster capitalists’ of the ‘90s, holding about 35 per cent of the entire island’s deposits? They receive 5 per cent on deposits and only pay 10 per cent taxes. Should European contributors have saved them? The euro cannot be responsible for the entire human misery.

If one wishes to look at incompetence, there are more striking examples elsewhere. Hypocrisy, bad faith and incompetence cannot rule alone. The world needs hope. Such an unexpected help recently came up with the election of Pope Francis, someone who has already changed borders and lines. Instead of wasting time and energy on futile issues — like moronic comments about the “first non-European Pope” — a closer look at his sayings is worthwhile.

I have no expertise to talk about the Pope, but will, however, underline the following: Fighting the insatiable thirst for power, consumerism and hypocrisies of all kinds while loving the people, especially the poor, defending society’s basic structures, reaching out towards the others and living in peace with its neighbours.

It can ring a bell somewhere, including South of Litani River. After all, does not Easter call for a message of hope?

Luc Debieuvre is a French essayist and a lecturer at IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques) and the FACO Law University of Paris.