Richard Madeley, the host of Good Morning Britain, has been criticised for his “vile” and “patronising” treatment of Guyana President Irfaan Ali on a recent episode of his show.
Madeley questioned Ali about his belief that the UK should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations for its historical role in slavery. Ali replied that the UK and the country’s citizens such as Madeleyare a beneficiary of the slave trade and should therefore pay.
Madeley appeared to grow angry with Ali over his suggestion that the royal family should offer to pay reparations. He slammed his hand on his desk and asked: “And you think the British royal family should make gestures, don’t you? What do you mean? Hand over a palace?”
Ali, keeping his cool, replied: “Well no, we don’t want the British to hand over a palace that we built.”Madeley was heard to guffaw.
Madeley has since been criticised for his behaviour, with many people calling him “arrogant,” “ignorant,” and “patronising.” Some have also accused him of being disrespectful to the President of another country.
This incident highlights the ongoing debate about the UK’s responsibility for its historical role in slavery. Some people believe that the UK should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations, while others believe that this is not necessary or appropriate.
COLONIALISM
It is important to note that the UK Government has apologised for its role in slavery, but it has not offered to pay reparations.
About the spat, award winning musician Nithin Sawhney wrote on Twitter: “Madeley really is an arrogant, ignorant, patronising piece of work isn’t he?”.
Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician and author who is known for his blunt and outspoken views, especially on issues related to India’s colonial past and its relationship with the West. His Oxford Union speeches have been particularly notable for their sharp critiques of Western imperialism and colonialism.
In one of his most notable speeches, delivered in 1972, Tharoor argued that Britain owed India reparations for the damage caused by its colonial rule.
He accused Britain of draining India’s resources, impoverishing its people, and dividing them along religious lines. He also argued that Britain had a moral obligation to help India develop in the aftermath of colonialism.
Tharoor has long criticised the West for its hypocrisy on issues such as human rights and democracy and argued that the West was quick to lecture other countries on these issues, but was often unwilling to hold itself to the same standards. He also criticised the West for its double standards on issues such as trade and climate change.
By the way, to digress, phubbing is the act of ignoring someone in a social setting by looking at your phone or other electronic device.
To coin a phrase for bluntness in treating biased western interviewers, you could perhaps try combining words or being a little inventive. Phubbing? How about ‘blutting’ for being deservedly blunt to foreign interviewers who are insensitive and patronising to leaders and others from non-western countries?
After all bluntness saves time and energy by avoiding unnecessary pleasantries and euphemisms. You get straight to the point, which allows you to have more meaningful conversations. Even wondered why the interviews and speeches referenced above have thousands of views on YouTube and other platforms?
Bluntness builds trust too. When people are honest with each other, they build trust as they know the exact quantity they are dealing with. Trust is essential for interactions when there is an imbalance of power, as between wealthy and developing countries.
Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, is a Caribbean female leader who once said in an interview with a western correspondent that the last time she checked “the US and UK were riddled with corruption but nobody said they can’t achieve their objectives.”
“Why is it that every time they begin an interview with a leader of a country like ours they ask about corruption?” she asked.
In a 2021 interview with the BBC, Mottley famously told a reporter that “the world is on fire” due to climate change. She also criticised the international community for failing to do enough to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change. She said “when the industrialised revolution is financed with what is extracted from our lands and that causes climate change, and we are asked to pay for it, that’s not fine”, or words to that effect.
In another interview, Mottley said that the global financial system is “rigged” against developing countries. She also criticised the International Monetary Fund for its austerity policies, which she said have caused “immense hardship” for people in developing countries.
(Those are her views, whether we in Sri Lanka in our current conjuncture like it or not.)
“The global financial system is rigged against developing countries,” she said in an interview with the Guardian, adding at COP26 2021 “We are not begging for help, we are demanding justice.”
Philip Zimbardo is best known for his Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how quickly and easily people can conform to social roles and expectations.
Stanley Milgram is best known for his obedience experiments, which showed how far people are willing to go to obey authority figures, even when they know what they are doing is wrong.
It’s not surprising then that people are stunned when the conventional wisdom is stood on its head and people tend to come out with what can be called in the colloquial as “truth bombs.” Mohommed Ali came out with a lot of those in his heyday. Of course the tactic to disrespect those who speak the blunt truth is to ignore them of vilify them when they are in their heyday, and then make demigods of them when they are dead or senile.
Mohommed Ali famously said, ‘Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten-thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”
Though Ali was called names and stripped of his titles when he was in his prime, he was later, when powerless, and a shadow of himself suffering from Parkinson’s disease, asked to light the Olympic torch in 2015.
CONSENSUS
What’s significant about people dropping truth bombs with interviewers is that they are often telling the self-evident truth that’s never really told. It’s odd that people realise some outspoken folks are telling the truth, but yet prefer to be in denial most of the time.
It doesn’t mean that every outspoken African or Asian leader is necessarily telling the truth, but a lot of the time those such as Tharoor, and the Guyanian leader Irfaan Ali are. It’s surprising that there have been articles that are laudatory of Ali concerning his recent spat with Madeley in a TV interview.
Newspapers such as the Independent highlighted the fact that many folk thought Madeley was rude and ‘vile.’
Those as eloquent as Martin Luther King Jnr. come around once in a lifetime. Though such folk are able to sway opinions with the sheer power of their speech, leaders such as Irfaan Ali have to convince an audience through the ephemeral medium of television that hardly offer the opportunity for interview subjects to be eloquent.
But with plain words and cutting repartee, those such as Mia Mottley have been able to call the bluff. It doesn’t mean that they are not called names for it.
At least there seems to be consensus that president Irfaan Ali was treated badly, no matter whether you agree with his call for reparations or not. Straight-talkers who make no gaffes are bound to have their day finally, and least some of them are rapidly and radically changing the conversation.
