LETTER: Ethics in politics is a rare commodity

A girl holds a South African national flag as people mourn the death of former President Nelson Mandela outside Cape Town City Hall, where Mandela made his first speech after his release from his 27-year incarceration, December 6, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died peacefully at home at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man revered as a moral giant. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: POLITICS OBITUARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

A girl holds a South African national flag as people mourn the death of former President Nelson Mandela outside Cape Town City Hall, where Mandela made his first speech after his release from his 27-year incarceration, December 6, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died peacefully at home at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man revered as a moral giant. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: POLITICS OBITUARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Published Oct 30, 2022

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I have said it before, and I say it again, politics is the art of hypocrisy. Accruing wealth using politics supersedes nearly any religion, or values or ethical standard, etc.

Example, Saudi Arabia is giving the US and its allies the middle finger for the first time in 50 years.

The decision by Opec to cut oil production will hurt the US, Britain and Europe since they are engaged in a proxy war with Russia, using Ukraine. Europe is unsafe as right-wing political parties that do not have a problem with Russia are gaining ground. Europeans do not want high energy prices and prefer negotiations with Russia. The idea that Nato’s strategy to surround

Russia is supported by all Europeans and limitless European support of Ukraine is not really true.

India and China did not intend to boycott cheap Russian oil or gas etc. So it seems that the US-led sanctions are subterfuge. Many American and European businesses that allegedly left Russia only did so on paper.

This is the Iran/Iraq war all over again. The world was forbidden to buy Iranian oil, but many Israelis Americans and Europeans, through several front companies, continued buying oil from the Ayatollah.

Marc Rich (Dec 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an Israeli/American businessman and criminal who founded the commodities company Glencore. He was indicted in the US on charges of tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering and making oil deals with the Ayatollah during the Iran hostage crisis. He fled to Switzerland until he received a presidential pardon from President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, Clinton’s last hour in office after Marc Rich’s wife made large donations to the Democratic Party.

President Biden is threatening Saudi Arabia because of the Opec decision. It is now obvious the US and its allies operate like gangsters. They forbid other nations from buying Russian oil and gas, but western syndicates do side-deals with Russia while Ukrainians fight a Nato proxy war. Oddly, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, was removed from office by the US for dealing with Russia.

The hypocrisy of politics is infinite, and it is obvious that ethics have no place in “realpolitik”. If President Biden had ethics, he would ask his party about the money they took from Marc Rich.

The US and its allies cannot manage the world like gangsters while the rest of us must pay high prices for food, clothes, electricity and petrol etc. Criminals cannot lecture others about ethics.

* Cllr Yagyah Adams, Cape Muslim Congress.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Cape Argus

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