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Those "friends" of solidarity in Paris

The media has been hyper-ventilating about the horrendous events in Paris - and the politicians engaged in trying to be seen as "doing" something - but in the meantime a host of so-called world leaders flew into Paris as a sign of solidarity with the French.

But are these friends be seen as good, wholesome and decent leaders?     Er, no!     Guy Rundle backgrounds the attendees in a piece on Crikey (behind a paywall):

"Were you to plot a perfect satirical novel of the contemporary world, you might end it with a mass public march, led by a series of oligarchical leaders holding a banner saying "Freedom and Democracy" -- at the end of which everyone who participated would be arrested because they may well be enemies of such freedom and you can't be too careful.

We are well on the way to that. Yesterday in Paris there was a march for "free speech", occasioned by the evisceration of a satire/outrage magazine whose repeated focus gag was piss-takes of Muhammad, and to a lesser extent of Jesus, the Pope, rabbis, etc. The march was led by, led by, a group of characters including:

  • The Prime Minister of Turkey, the country which has jailed more journalists than anyone in the world
  • The Foreign Minister of Egypt, which has Peter Greste and two other Al Jazeera staff serving 10-year prison terms on absurd charges/convictions
  • Putin’s Foreign Minister, a government whose shadowy affiliated gangs have murdered dozens of journalists in the past decade and a half
  • The Foreign Minister of Bahrain ('nuff said).
  • The Prime Minister of Poland, whose government raided the Polish Charlie Hebdo equivalent when it "embarrassed" the government
  • The Prime Minister of Ireland, where blasphemy remains an enforced criminal offence
  • A sheikh from Qatar, where people are serving 15-year terms for "blasphemous" poetry
  • Leaders of Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian territories, who all jailed journos
  • Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Israel Defence Force lethally targeted journos during the Gaza invasion
  • UK Prime Minister David Cameron, where Defence Advisory Notices and super-injunctions keep a host of live information from the public
  • The Saudi ambassador to France, whose country has handed out a thousand lashes to a man convicted of blasphemy
  • The Secretary-General of NATO, which deliberately bombed the Belgrade station of Yugoslav public TV during the Kosovo operation, killing 16 journalists
  • The US Attorney-General, who works for a government which has cracked down harder on whistleblowers than any other."

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