The Mission That Dares Not Speak Its Name
By Chip Tsao | published Aug 12, 2010
The killing of American Dr. Karen Woo by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan has been condemned as a “deplorable and cowardly act” by the British government and mourned by those who love peace. A Taliban spokesman said she was killed, together with other medical staff, because they were “spying for the Americans” and “preaching Christianity.”
A statement issued by Dr. Woo’s family denied the charges, insisting she did not preach Christianity. “She was merely a humanist and had no religious or political agenda,” claimed the family.
But with some “cultural differences” as allowed by most western liberals, it was most likely that the Taliban viewed Dr. Woo and her medical team as guilty of preaching the western religion, since Christ treated a leper and the blind, free of charge, according to the Gospel. The concept of medical charity is alien to many peoples outside of western civilization, who are often deeply suspicious that any volunteers coming into their countries to treat the poor must be working for the CIA, trying to collect medical data for the evil American imperialists.
A Hong Kong doctor once told me that he had been visiting poor, rural areas in China to give children there free treatment, accompanied by some local government officials the entire time for “protection.” On becoming more familiar with each other, the officials admitted to him that he had been suspected of turning his surgical knife on Chinese children to gather medical information either for his own interest or for some foreign power. The doctor told them he was a devout Hong Kong Christian, and being very patriotic, he believed in Chairman Mao’s dictum of “Serve the People.” The officials looked at each other and laughed with cynical contempt. “There is no free lunch, isn’t that a famous saying in capitalism?” They refuted and warned my doctor friend not to treat them as fools.
For Dr. Woo’s family, perhaps it is of prime importance to clear her name quickly by passionately denying that Karen had gone to Afghanistan to preach Christianity, as if “preaching Christianity” is a crime similar to drug-trafficking or prostitution. That is, after all, a widely held view among western liberals. Christianity is now a politically guilty word that is being knocked out from state-sponsored secondary school curricula in some cities in Britain under the banner of “multiculturalism” for fears of “indoctrinating children with western cultural propaganda.”
This makes us feel proud of our chief executive Donald Tsang, who loves to publicize his identity as a Roman Catholic, attending mass at St. John’s church, and carrying a portrait of Mother Teresa in his pocket. How much he’s offended his Chinese masters remains to be seen, until his retirement, when Beijing will either award him with the much-coveted deputy chairmanship of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference (CPCC) as given to his predecessor C.H. Tung, or not.
The killing of American Dr. Karen Woo by Taliban gunmen in Afghanistan has been condemned as a “deplorable and cowardly act” by the British government and mourned by those who love peace. A Taliban spokesman said she was killed, together with other medical staff, because they were “spying for the Americans” and “preaching Christianity.”
A statement issued by Dr. Woo’s family denied the charges, insisting she did not preach Christianity. “She was merely a humanist and had no religious or political agenda,” claimed the family.
But with some “cultural differences” as allowed by most western liberals, it was most likely that the Taliban viewed Dr. Woo and her medical team as guilty of preaching the western religion, since Christ treated a leper and the blind, free of charge, according to the Gospel. The concept of medical charity is alien to many peoples outside of western civilization, who are often deeply suspicious that any volunteers coming into their countries to treat the poor must be working for the CIA, trying to collect medical data for the evil American imperialists.
A Hong Kong doctor once told me that he had been visiting poor, rural areas in China to give children there free treatment, accompanied by some local government officials the entire time for “protection.” On becoming more familiar with each other, the officials admitted to him that he had been suspected of turning his surgical knife on Chinese children to gather medical information either for his own interest or for some foreign power. The doctor told them he was a devout Hong Kong Christian, and being very patriotic, he believed in Chairman Mao’s dictum of “Serve the People.” The officials looked at each other and laughed with cynical contempt. “There is no free lunch, isn’t that a famous saying in capitalism?” They refuted and warned my doctor friend not to treat them as fools.
For Dr. Woo’s family, perhaps it is of prime importance to clear her name quickly by passionately denying that Karen had gone to Afghanistan to preach Christianity, as if “preaching Christianity” is a crime similar to drug-trafficking or prostitution. That is, after all, a widely held view among western liberals. Christianity is now a politically guilty word that is being knocked out from state-sponsored secondary school curricula in some cities in Britain under the banner of “multiculturalism” for fears of “indoctrinating children with western cultural propaganda.”
This makes us feel proud of our chief executive Donald Tsang, who loves to publicize his identity as a Roman Catholic, attending mass at St. John’s church, and carrying a portrait of Mother Teresa in his pocket. How much he’s offended his Chinese masters remains to be seen, until his retirement, when Beijing will either award him with the much-coveted deputy chairmanship of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference (CPCC) as given to his predecessor C.H. Tung, or not.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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