Mood:
lyricalNow Playing: Norman Kember on BBC4
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Norman Kember, the English ex-hostage is speaking on BBC4 of his whole "ordeal" in Iraq, and frankly, he sounds like a misguided but disturbingly well-intentioned fellow. The way he's speaking sounds as if he's describing a holiday, as if it was no big deal. He agrees he was probably naive, but this was just what he had to do. And when asked about difficult parts of his peace mission, like say the kidnapping, or Tom Fox's last words, he simply says "Oh, I can't remember." "My mind must have just shut off" and then laughs. There is definitely something odd about him, and slightly irresponsible.
I'm expressing the above opinion only because it's an about-face from my opinion only a week or two ago. There was a lot of criticism in the papers after his release and I recall hotly defending his actions to Stephen (who agreed with me). I thought it was important for civilians and peacemakers to try and repair damage where perhaps the military and governments were too overstretched to handle.
I thought, who cares about the cost?, its good that people have such strong convictions, and are brave enough to put themselves in danger to help others.
Only now, Norman Kember truly sounds like a selfish Christian who was not interested in helping anyone, but rather was interested in talking to them, and showing Iraqi's the strength of his faith and to demonstrate that not all Christians hate them. Even better, how would you like to be a Christian yourself? Imagine how content that would have made Mr. Kember feel? To have risked his life, having proven indisputably the strength of his convictions, and then to have a trophy to bring back: "Look, I lead x amount of people to the Lord!" Hallelujah.
Meanwhile, what the Iraqi people need least is more religion. They require less division and confusion. What I wish Norman Kember had said he went to Iraq to do was to help Iraqis, perhaps rebuild their communities (bring a nice injection of western cash, instead of western religion). He could have used his interaction with the Iraqi public to help steer the government in the right direction. A well-intentioned peace activist is not inspiring. A peace activist who actually creates peace is something awe-inspiring.
Instead, he's achieved nothing and yet would do it again (without getting kidnapped of course).
>>>>RANT OVER<<<<
Stephen's making yummy potatoes and we'll probably end up in the pub somewhere today. I'll drink to world peace, I assure you.