Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 March 2006 12:11:28
Been following the story of the CPT people kidnapped in iraq for the duration. sad about the one and glad about the three, as i guess most people would be. CPT really are considered and serious about what they do and probably just want to get on with the job of 'getting in the way' of violence - and in so doing, exposing and reporting the dreadful things they witness (rather than be catupulted into the media spotlight themselves). I have done my homework here and I find nothing to criticise. They (all of them!) deserve admiration and support - or at the absolute minimum, respect.
The debate which has ensued over here since the release of norman kember has really saddened me. I'm not sure if it's too dramatic or completely reasonable to suggest that what has gone on is a distasteful attempt to somehow 'discredit' him - yes, while he was in the media were all 'poor norman, he was doing a good thing and now he's been kidnapped' but then as soon as he got out it was all about the report of the army guy saying 'he didn't say thank you'. This has (as was possibly the intention - who knows?) generated a debate over whether he should have been there in the first place, etc; the argument seems to run that he made his own bed and that his first statement didn't contain a thank you to the people who released him.
The complaints about this just sounded to me like toddlertantrum footstamping on behalf of the british army. But I suspect they knew that he would come out with something like this:
"There is a real sense in which you are interviewing the wrong person. It is the ordinary people of Iraq that you should be talking to - the people who have suffered so much over many years and still await the stable and just society that they deserve" (from his statement on Sat, found on the bbc news website)
... and wanted to put his wisdom and integrity into question before the british public started to actually listen to what he has to say.
Following what was quoted above from the statement, he immediately mentions British soldiers with sympathy, and, of course, publicly thanks the troops who released him. Two days after his release. Two days... quite honestly I can't see how on earth he's done anything wrong. My suggestion is for people to have a good listen to everything he does say and also to spend some time hanging around the Christian Peacemaker teams website.
Having written all this - I discover it's already been said! See the Ekklisia article.