Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
“Numerous death threats, his employer’s demand to transfer out of the country and a middle-of-the-night visit from state security forces were not enough to intimidate the prominent Emirati rights activist Ahmed Mansoor, who recently called for political reforms. Security forces managed to silence him only by whisking him away from his family during a raid on his house on April 8…… Six weeks later, leading international institutions with major stakes in the United Arab Emirates, like New York University, University of Paris-Sorbonne, and the Louvre and Guggenheim museums, remain silent over the detention of Mansoor, a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa advisory committee. They have looked the other way as the government widened its crackdown on civil society by arresting four other activists and purging the elected boards of two prominent civil society organizations. By refusing to condemn this repression despite their prominent presence in the UAE, these public institutions are complicit in the abuses of their partner — the UAE government — and do a disservice to their mission of serving the enlightenment of humanity. …………..”
Samer Muscati apparently doesn’t understand the different missions of these great institutions of learning and museums. NYU, Sorbonne, the Louvre, and the Guggenheim have dual missions. (1) Their mission at home in Europe and the USA is to educate, enlighten, and improve human conditions. But that is in places like Paris and New York. (2) In other places, in my Gulf region, especially in a place like Abu Dhabi, their role can be put succinctly in one five-letter word: M-O-N-E-Y. In French it is a six-letter word: A-R-G-E-N-T. As for those of us, like Mr. Muscati, myself and many others, who expect more and better from such lofty institutions, their leaders have one word for us: it is a FOUR-letter word. They are too genteel to say it, but we all know what it means.
(Remember, we should try to understand how they see things: what the hell do we, in our region, know about humanity and self determination and freedom? Not enough to offset the good money).
Cheers
mhg
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