By Orville Taylor, Contributor 
Orville W. Taylor
HIS NAME was 'Arafat' not 'Ararat.' Ararat is where Noah's ark is supposed to have landed after the flood. This time the flood has not yet happened but it is imminent. We are on the verge of an international cataclysm and a perhaps local version as well, due to the way leadership and justice have been exercised in the world. As remote from us as Yasser Arafat was, lessons can be learnt from the events associated with his life. He was accused of being a micro-manager, authoritarian and controlling and did not tolerate dissent. So if you were close to him you had to say "'Yes Sir, Mr. Yasser!" Arafat was a sort of 'One Don.' Hold on! This seems to be the pattern for people of Middle-Eastern descent. Anyway let's 'See how i' go.'
Whatever might have been his leadership style though, Arafat emerged at a time when a new era of international injustice began.
Me! I have no deep affinity to the Islamic world and once offended my pork-hating Muslim associate by thinking he said "half a slab of bacon" when he greeted me with "As-salaam alaykum." What I do know however, is that there are universal rules about fundamental human rights. Peter Tosh, the most talented of the Wailers, (vex if you want! Marley couldn't play the guitar, sing or write like him) declared in Equal Rights that everyone is crying for peace but nobody is crying for justice. In true prophetic form he suggests a direct connection between equal rights and justice.
CONFLICT
Although the conflict in the Middle East which is now threatening to become a war between the Islamic world and the United States and its allies is one from Biblical days, its modern genesis was with the birth of the State of Israel.
In 1948 with direct support from the United States and the compliance of Britain, which controlled the Palestine region, the minority, mostly migrant Jewish population in Palestine declared its statehood. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were among the first nations to recognise Israel as a state and the United Nations (UN) followed suit in 1949. Understand this: a piece of an existing country was taken to create a nation-state for its historical enemies. Anyone with even a smattering of common sense could predict that this would be the recipe for war. Just imagine someone taking a piece of Tivoli and creating a PNP stronghold, or taking piece of Brooke Valley and making it into a colony for Sherlock. Jesus might have made water out of wine in that region but he never mixed water and oil.
Nonetheless, with unmitigated immigration and megabucks from the United States and other countries Israel quickly grew into a military superpower and even more rapidly became an uncontrollable ally of the West. In the face of resistance by the Arab states to recognise it, Israel grew and eventually invaded the Egyptian-controlled area of Palestine, the Arab-occupied Gaza Strip, and the Sinai area.
Despite the intervention of the UN, tensions did not dissipate and later conflicts resulted in Israel again annexing the regions and taking Arab-occupied East Jerusalem with it, uniting it. Despite what the Israelis may say, the Palestinians consider Jerusalem to be their capital as well and Israel's continued occupancy of the region is illegal and unjust. Isn't it a big joke that the word Jerusalem means "City of Peace?" I think it is more "City of Pieces". It is this unequal treatment of the excesses of Israel that has angered Arab states and has precipitated into other anti-Western sentiments.
PATTERN
Arafat emerged as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1969 and in 1973 Israeli hardliners formed Likud in response (there I go again). A pattern arose between the combatants. On one hand there is the well-armed Israel (perhaps overly so) with weapons of mass-destruction comparable to the 'weapons of mass distraction' Saddam had. On the other there are the slip-shod sets of freedom fighters, terrorists whatever you want to call them, using crude weapons such as rocks (not crack) and slings. Imagine a fighter using a "bingie" to attack an armoured car. Those fighters must be brave because they would not dare try that here. Anyway, "Dem have gun too!" The truth is, they are pushed to a point where they are not afraid to die. Thus, suicide bombings become a viable option. This is where the real danger lies. Where people have no faith that the system of justice will treat them fairly they will use "any means necessary". This is not an advocacy of this approach; it is recognition of the dangers of an international justice system that they do not believe in.
Arafat became a hero because he arose when a leader was needed. His passing leaves a chasm in the leadership among the Palestinians and, in fact, the Arab world. He did not mentor a successor and did little to share power. It is interesting that there are clear parallels with our own political landscape here with a lacuna being created in the JLP which Bruce Golding is slated to fill. However, the succession issue is still unresolved. For all of his work in being the voice and face of resistance this might be Arafat's ultimate sin. True immortality lies in the students one has schooled.
On another note, the athletics fraternity and the nation on the whole mourn Olympian Dr. Lennox Miller. However, unlike Arafat and others he has left a range of persons to carry on the tradition. Since he was a 100 metres specialist I can think of Asafa who, like Miller's 1968 relay team, ran world leading performances in the heats and semi-finals but failed to medal in the finals. (Ouch!) Truly though that baton is in good hands.
Dr. Orville Taylor is
lecturer in the Department
of Sociology, Psychology
and Social Work at the
UWI, Mona campus.
