The Tale of a Saudi Prince And a Silly Congresswoman
Oct 25, 2001
newsday.com
AS OF yesterday, it still wasn't clear whether Cynthia McKinney, the Democratic U.S. congresswoman from Georgia, was still planning to have a meeting with representatives of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
My query to her Washington office wasn't returned, and the congresswoman appears to have been dodging the press for days. If she hasn't had the meeting already, I hope common sense prevails and that she'll abandon the idea. McKinney's attempt to hit up the prince for $10 million in charity to help poor people and African Americans was pretty stupid.
The prince first gave the money to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a donation to the fund to aid the victims of the World Trade center attack and their families. But Giuliani returned the money after the prince volunteered his opinion that the United States should consider changing its policies in the Middle East. Giuliani didn't want anyone wagging a finger in his face while he was trying to deal with 5,000 dead people and an aggrieved city.
Whatever one thinks of America's foreign policies and the role they may have played in our recent tragedy, the mayor was justified in being annoyed with the prince and giving the money back.
But then up steps McKinney, who writes a tactless letter to the prince. The mayor was wrong to rebuff the Saudi's charity, she said, and she proceeded to run down a litany of how the United States has offended the Muslim world. Then she made her pitch on behalf of America's underclass: the homeless, the racially profiled, the unjustly imprisoned and executed, the folks who receive poor health care or none at all, and those whose handicaps cry out for affirmative action but who aren't going to get any.
There's substance enough to all of these complaints. But who wants to hear them linked to a plea for charity from a prince whose country spawned the man believed to be the chief terrorist against America, and whose own country has a record of abusing its own people?
Even-handed observers such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International cite terrible human rights abuses in Saudia Arabia. These include the stifling of free speech and an independent press, and the suppression of political parties; the use of capital punishment (usually public beheadings) for crimes ranging from murder and rape to sodomy and sorcery; and flogging and amputation of limbs for less serious crimes.
In Saudi Arabia, women face severe discrimination in terms of dress restrictions, education, employment and their role in family life. Here's a country where a small elite are lavishly rich, yet where unemployment is in the double digits. And it's the country that harbors and finances Idi Amin, the former Ugandan dictator whose reign of terror left an estimated 300,000 people dead in his country.
Was Rep. McKinney ignorant of Saudi Arabia's record, or did she know about it, but thought she could shame the United States by getting a foreign prince to intervene in our homegrown problems?
In any event, her appeal was silly, inappropriate, and it muddled the issues. Black and poor Americans don't need charity from Saudi Arabia. Whatever complaints they have must be addressed to their own government. Nor do they need to get caught up in the backlash against our Muslim enemies. Besides, how far would $10 million go to alleviate all the problems McKinney mentioned?
My annoyance with her has nothing to do with her embarrassing the United States on the world stage. It's not about the need for unity among all Americans at a time of crisis (because Americans should be able to disagree with and criticize their government even in wartime). Nor is it about McKinney's alleged lack of patriotism, since I assume she loves her country as much as the next person and believes the terrorists should be hunted down and punished.
But the prince shouldn't be allowed to buy credibility for his democratically challenged country by engaging in cheap philanthropy. Nor should serious social issues in this country be mixed up with a crime of terrorism.
Rep. Mc Kinney should know better. She's been intelligent, even courageous on other matters. On this one, however, she's way out of line. |
