Opinion

By John Wahome | Nov. 13, 2024

 

Egypt of antiquity must have remained a desirable human rights sanctuary into its twilight years. Biblical accounts inform us that at the beginning of the common era (CE), the child Jesus escaped Herod the Great’s murderous dragnet only because his parents hurriedly sought asylum there, until the king’s death. A ‘Nile Card’, I suppose, must have had the same value and appeal as the American Green Card does today.

Perhaps this contributed to Egypt’s status as a historically major tourist attraction centred around the breathtaking pyramids at Giza (that, by the way, stood as the highest man-made edifices for 4000 years until 1924), its stability and its hegemony.

The great powers that strut the globe with abandon today led by the United States should take note of the ominous fact that there is barely any correlation that exists between the Egypt of 2024 and all those lofty glories of the past. Empires do crumble, as Edward Gibbon demonstrates in his iconic book, The rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

For the longest time, the US-appointed itself a special global cop enforcing human rights worldwide through an effective mix of coercion and persuasion. This began during the post-war period and intensified after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Not that anyone minded. In fact, it made perfect sense that this ‘cowboy cop’ who had entered the World War somewhat reluctantly and yet managed to corner and clobber the main belligerents (Germany and Japan) should have the honours of effectuating respect for law, order, and human dignity throughout the world.

Kenyans who grew up during the Moi era will remember the revolutionary solidarity they felt with Smith Hempstone and other ‘rogue’ American envoys who - energised by their diplomatic status, remarkable snobbishness and deep pockets - took upon themselves to stand up to the ‘Nyayo’ regime’s autocracy, an unthinkable act of daring that had cost many locals dearly.

In retrospect, it is terribly disappointing that after the tremendous political birth pains of the 1990s characterised by brutal incarcerations and assassinations, Kenya – 40 years later – is today steeped in more vicious mutations of official kleptocracy, human rights abuses, poverty and general misery than ever before.

Originally, the American dream of supporting democracy overseas for the benefit of the citizens of those countries must have been sincere and well-meaning, somewhat in line with George W Bush’s declaration in 2005 that “it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”

Unfortunately, Bush’s declaration was itself made in the midst of the truculent ‘shock and awe’ bombardment of Iraq, perpetrated on the pretext of unproven existence of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein. This illegal war went on to snuff out close to a million lives, create dangerous power vacuums and engender unending insurgencies.

Those false claims ultimately spelt doom for the careers of both Bush and British PM Tony Blair, and clearly demonstrated how calamitously the world’s foremost human-rights apostle had backslid: The USA was now metaphorically quaffing flagons of toxic wines in place of mineral water!

Yet, posterity may not consider that horrible Iraq misadventure – or other catalogued violations – as the epitome of America’s human rights travesties. That distinction belongs to the shockingly casual and ongoing extermination of more than 42,000 Palestinians, majority of them innocent women, children and noncombatants by weaponry bearing the logo MADE IN THE USA, never mind Israel’s right to exact revenge for the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.

America’s name will also be linked forever to the ignominious addendum of maiming and injuring of 100,000-plus Palestinians, the deliberate mass starvation, and the utterly unnecessary pulverisation of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, hospitals and all universities. The unexplainable hostility towards the UN’s efforts to ameliorate the suffering will no doubt feature in the hefty charge sheet history will confront the USA with.

For now, everyone that I know is still shaking their heads at Joe Biden’s regime’s utter nonchalance (some say ‘catalysis’ and ‘complicity’) in the face of the unparalleled suffering of humanity in Gaza, brought in real-time and macabre clarity to our living rooms by contemporary technologies. Indeed, it has been perplexing to watch a superpower possessing all kinds of veto, kinetic, and political muscles reduced to a meek poodle that helplessly kowtows to Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-preserving machinations and whims!

This article was born from reading a bold recent threat by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s that “the Department of State … will restrict US visas for any individual responsible for undermining democracy in Ghana”. Kidding me? How right the Swahilis were when they said that no baboon ever critiques its own ugly backside!

Will President Donald Trump 2.0. improve on the protection of human rights overseas? Hardly. An honest extrapolation of his infamous and unlawful Capitol insurrection saga predicts only more chaos both internally and externally.