Whose Fault Is It Anyway? ~ by: Sabine Hirschauer

Written by Sabine Hirschauer, Phd Student (ABD)

Picture: President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt (right) with the Leader of the Libyan Revolution, Muammar al-Gaddafi, 1969

Whose fault is it anyway? I am just writing a brief for ODU’s Model UN about the Review and Recommendations for UN Human Rights Council and I came across this sentence: “Many considered the lack of rights in foreign countries to be of little concern and the fault of the oppressed for their decisions to have an unrepresentative regime.” So, whose fault is it anyway - to be/get oppressed? The people’s fault for voting and/or for eventually falling for an ineffective leader and/or government. Or is it the system/structure that allows for oppression in the first place and lacks mechanisms that help us to decipher the good from the bad and eventually to get (peacefully) rid of a dysfunctional and abusive leadership? Is it history that taints us, makes us complacent and turns us into willing accomplices in our own misery? Or is suffering part of an inherent political (global) learning curve? Part of our psychological make-up? Is it in our DNA for one group of people (nation) to fall for a charismatic leader in times of political and economic despair or for another to be quite capable to de-code the rhetorical war of words. I went to the Holocaust Museum last Monday (during Fall Break) and it reminded me again (and it always does) of my “German-ness.” How can a nation of such rich culture fall for a fool and such a mad man like Hitler? I know all about this and that (Versailles etc.), but it’s still just so stunning to me. “We’d rather have the devil than another monarch.” This was what the Libyan people were quoted to have said in 1969 when Qadhafi came to power. Libya did get the devil and suffered terribly for it for more than 40 years. So, whose fault is it anyway? No one’s. And Anyone’s?

Written by Sabine Hirschauer, PhD Student (ABD)