Once more at the intersection of propaganda and motorcycling: This time the topic is "Hells Angel" Mother Teresa. It was just an accidental find, the comment that someone was "Like f***n Mother Teresa", which obviously meant Mother Teresa was well known as bad person to at least a portion of the population.So one segment of the population reveres Mother Teresa as a near saint, and apparently another regards her as a devil. Interesting, seems like a classic case of propaganda lurking here.
How was it done and why? For starters I had to investigate a little further, because I have already seen many examples of respected religious leaders being totally corrupt, like Pat Robertson, and many of the TV Evangelist crowd.
So when I looked into Mother Teresa, the first thing I wanted to know was about her lifestyle. Did she have large mansions, yachts, big cars, servants like Pat Robertson? No, she seemed pretty legit, unlike most of the thieving fraud artists out there. She was living a life of abject poverty. Who would even bother to steal millions of dollars to live on crusts of bread in a malaria infested slum with lepers all around. I think it's safe to say somebody was out to get her for some other reason.
So obviously whoever had successfully smeared the name of Mother Teresa would be required reading in Propaganda U. One of the names that came to the top of the search was Christopher Hitchens. He co-wrote and narrated a documentary "Hell's Angel" slamming her for the British Channel 4. That explains my photoshop job, because Mother Teresa never owned a Harley.
First I like to see some motive, because people rarely do a serious smear job without reason or money. Reason number one is simple. She's famous for being almost a saint, and therefore a challenge similar to Mount "because it's there" Everest, to take her down. Reason number two. She saved some Palestinian children from an Israeli massacre. That must have irked a few people. Reason number three: She accepted 1.2 million dollars from Charles Keating, and refused to return it when he was convicted of fraud. This has "redistribution of wealth" written all over it, and if there is anything that arouses the ire of "The best and the brightest" it is taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor.
My own attitude is that she was not legally (or morally) required to return the money. And as far as she was concerned, did she even understand all the legal mumbo jumbo that got Charles Keating in trouble. And furthermore, in light of the latest market meltdown it does appear as though almost every wealthy person the the USA has got some kind of legal or illegal fraud going. Also I'm pretty sure Mother Teresa would have had a hard time coming up with the $1.4 million after the fact anyway. Ask any poor person who won a lottery a few months later to return the money and see what answer you get. They don't have it.
Black marks? She re-used syringes, did not do thorough diagnostics of patients, did not set up a teaching hospital, ran her nuns like a cult, they were not allowed to read newspapers, she was beatified too soon by the pope, and some of her miracles were faked by her supporters (some???). Also, she opposed divorce and contraception (later disproved), when she got sick she was cared for in a California clinic, not one of her own clinics.
My own take on this? Most people have no idea what poverty in the third world is like. I have been in a government run hospital in Africa, staffed and funded by a world power that I will not name in order to protect the innocent. Not only did they re-use some syringes, they re-sharpened them by rubbing the point on the concrete wall. The people slamming Mother Teresa are smart enough to use this collective ignorance to make her out to be a danger to the health of slum dwellers. Please, why don't some of you people go visit a leprosarium in Sierra Leone? And then when you stop throwing up, then you can write about how unhealthy Mother Teresa's clinics were.
You can read a hit piece by Christopher Hitchens here to get a taste for a very clever propaganda story. "The fanatic, fraudulent Mother Teresa"
Mother Theresa was a missionary; that, in and of itself, conveys a lot of negative freight. It remains to be determined whether she actually did more good than bad.
ReplyDeleteBut debate on and critical discussion of, her 'career' is valid.
While Hitchens' arguments (like anyone else's) should be considered, they should be taken with a grain of salt because he's such a polemicist and often guilty of exaggerated and unbalanced arguments to advance his positions (which, by the way, I have found to be all over the shop!).
Bottom line: Mother Theresa was not really a 'saint' (J-P II notwithtanding) and Christopher Hitchens is certainly not infallible.
Post scriptum ... Mother Theresa was 'just following orders'.
ReplyDelete