Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Belafonte and the Do-Gooders

While visiting Venezuela last weekend, American singer Harry Belafonte publicly criticized the U.S. government for turning its back on the nation’s poor. The 78-year-old also took issue with U.S. leaders for building more prisons than schools. But what attracted the most ink and airtime in the United States was Belafonte’s comments, as reported by the Associated Press, about President Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Appearing on Chavez’s weekly television and radio broadcast on Jan. 8, Belafonte reportedly said:

"No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we’re here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people … support your revolution.”

Establishment and right-wing commentators predictably jumped all over Belafonte for having the audacity to call Bush a “tyrant” and a “terrorist.”

Based on the U.S. government’s recent military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, which have directly caused tens of thousands of deaths and unimaginable destruction, Belafonte’s comment about Bush being the world’s “greatest terrorist” certainly can be construed as reasonable and even uncontroversial among analysts who dare to assess the actions of world government leaders and non-state actors from a neutral geopolitical vantage point. No single person has roused as much trepidation among the world’s population during the past five years as George Bush.

Based on Bush’s use of the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to manage the world’s most powerful nation in an arbitrary manner and with little restraint, Belafonte’s description of Bush as the world’s “greatest tyrant” also doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

(Where Belafonte may be mistaken is in his claim that “millions” of Americans support Chavez’s “revolution.” One would probably be hard-pressed to find a million Americans who would say they support Chavez’s “revolution.” On the other hand, you might be able to find more than a million Americans who applaud Chavez for standing up to the Bush administration for interfering in his nation’s affairs. There is no intrinsic link between Chavez’s domestic “revolution” and his willingness to publicly denounce U.S. foreign policy, although one could make the case that Chavez’s willingness to stand up to the Bush administration has improved his political approval ratings in Venezuela.)

What’s most amusing about this episode is how quickly some do-good organizations with ties to Belafonte quickly sought to distance themselves from the singer’s comments about Bush.

After reportedly getting calls to its office, UNICEF on Jan. 9 issued this statement:

“Comments over the weekend by Harry Belafonte in Venezuela were made as a private citizen, and not in his role as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, nor in an official capacity on behalf of the organization.

UNICEF does not endorse these comments.”

AARP, the advocacy group for the 50-and-over age bracket, put even greater distance between itself and Belafonte. AARP said in a Jan. 10 statement:

"Last year, AARP The Magazine recognized Harry Belafonte for his work in serving as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1987.

To our dismay, Mr. Belafonte has made reckless and irresponsible statements about the President of the United States which we neither support nor condone. Mr. Belafonte is entitled to express his own personal views, but AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable."

In his comments, Belafonte did not call for the assassination of a world leader. He did not seek to justify a military invasion and occupation. He did not endorse acts of violence or an expanded police state. Based on the reality of the U.S. government’s actions over the past five years, he merely offered an unvarnished opinion of President Bush, a definite no-no within polite U.S. political establishment circles.

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