And unlike Nir Rosen-I am not going to apologize for what follows.
Lara Logan got beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob of Arabs. And now the world is “shocked” that such a thing would happen to a hot blonde in the middle of crowd of Arabs.
While I feel as much sympathy towards Ms Logan as anyone else-and I wish it had not happened to her-I’m not in the least bit surprised, and neither should anyone else be who has spent any amount of time in the Arab world.
These are Arabs after all. They are anything, but inconsistent.
The whining can start now- and the vicious attacks too. “How can you say that?” ” “No woman deserves to be raped”. ” You are a mysoginist pig”.
I didn’t say anything like that.
But, hey, knock yourself out- it changes not the reality or lack of risk management practiced by CBS news. On this particular issue-I have to side with the neandrathals-there are certain places it is just not smart to send a woman, especially a blonde woman reporter, to.
Are you listening DACOWITS?
People don’t like to hear that ugly truth. But it remains the truth just the same. There are times when prudent discretion needs to trump the urge to “break new ground”. This appears to have been one of those times.
Ask yourself these questions: 1) Why was it so important to have a woman there? and 2) How many Al Jazerra reporters who speak fluent Arabic got assaulted? Of either sex. I’ll bet the answer is “Zero”.
Look at it another way. I have the freedom to go anywhere I choose. However, whether I like it or not-there are some places, I should simply choose not go to-out of simple common sense prudence and a desire for my own safety.
Which gets back to CBS and its lack of judgement. You cannot tell me that there are not some dark haired, hijab wearing, Arabic speaking reporters that CBS could have paid-who probably also understand Arab culture-to do the same job that Ms Logan got sent to do. Why did it not occur to CBS to take that approach?
Oh yea- I forgot, we don’t have local bureaus anymore,with people who actually have lived in a country for an appreciable amount of time.
Before one goes to ballistic about pointing out what is a simple fact of life-I have a homework assignment for you. Google this phrase and see how many hits you get back: “Filipina women raped by Arabs”.
I’ll save you the time-its over 300,000. Where is the US media outrage about that? Most of those women didn’t even try to go down and insert themselves into a mob-they just picked the wrong employer to work for. At a rate of pay far less than Lara Logan’s. Don’t see the western world up in arms about that.
If you parsed the stories in that Google search carefully-you would have found at least TEN (that’s right-TEN) stories of a woman raped in an Arab country since the beginning of this year alone. There is no one who speaks out for them. And its not stopping. It should serve as warning flag though.
Now let’s be clear. I am not condoning what is clearly a horrible crime-no matter who it happens to. My point is, however, that these statistics point out what can only be described as a much higher level of risk for a foreign woman in an Arab country. People in management in CBS news had to know that. Relying on translators and security guards is not enough.
Its what they would call in the aviation world, “supervisory error”-which serves as a contributing factor in the mishap. Arabs are Arabs after all-they are not going to change, no matter who tells them to. Democracy or no-they are still Arabs. This is and will remain an unfortunate fact of life in these countries for a long time to come. At least as long as they practice Islam.
Even after the furor dies down about Lara Logan-those same Filipinas will still be getting on planes out of Manila and some of them will be living in fear just a few months after their arrival. And most of the Arab states will not be lifting a finger to change that. And sadly, no newspaper outside of the Philippines will report on it. Its a lousy story and a big part of what is wrong with the Arab world.
Its an outrage-just like Lara Logan getting raped is an outrage. But all of our moral pretensions is not going to change that anytime soon. That’s the world we live in and will report about. You cannot eliminate these risks-no matter how much you want to.
Because these people are Arabs.
You can manage risk though and try to keep it diminished or avoided. And one way is to actually have reporters who can blend into crowds and speak the language. And if its absolutely vital to go against that advice…..
Well, don’t be surprised when it blows up in your face.