I imagine it's making its way to your email inbox right now, but in case you miss it, take a look at this news from Palestine today. Richard Gere is featured in a television advertisement that's being broadcast in the West Bank and Gaza, urging Palestinians to participate in the upcoming election that will replace the late Yasser Arafat. Apparently, Palestinians like Manar an-Najar, who is quoted in this article, are a little confused as to why they're seeing a Hollywood star, as opposed to someone they're familiar with and respect. Most don't even know who he is.
I didn't really think much about celebrity endorsements during this past US election season, partially because most celebrities were supporting my candidate. "I'm rich, and I'm a shitty actor. You're dumb and poor, and can't conjure a reasonable case for either candidate, so just vote for who I support." It's not hard for me to see why I ignored the whole thing. Furthermore, most of the celebrities that were endorsing either candidate were American, so it didn't seem so out of place. What's interesting to me about this piece, is it illustrates what is probably the pervasive American attitude about the rest of the world, especially toward the Middle East: "Those heathens need us to take care of them; To pull the serfs out of the mud and bring them Democracy and Christianity."
The reality is they could really care less. They're probably wondering why, after we've spent the last 50 years supporting this dictator or that, giving military support to this oppresor or that, and bombing the place further into the stone age, we're suddenly able to see ourselves as the dove. It's not just the famous or those in government, but much of the US seems to really believe that we're the saviours and "liberators". It just seems supremely arrogant and narrow minded (which, coming from me, is a huge slap in the face).
I'm fully behind Manjar's attitude to this American hubris. I don't imagine you'll ever read this blog, Manjar, but you seal the deal as my new friend when you say, "We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them -- they elected a moron". Strong work.