Oh, there's so many. But singled out for asshattery this week is Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. Now, this isn't to say the whole situation is his fault-- he probably shares in it with his opponent. But Gbagbo was defeated in a presidential election and still refuses to leave the presidency. (As bad as the U.S. seems sometimes, this kind of thing still feels unlikely, which is nice.) So as a result the nation has descended into civil war, between Gbagbo's supporters and the supporters of his opponent, Alassane Ouattara. Civil war that involves shooting women protesting for International Women's Day and on another occasion firing with extreme prejudice on pregnant protesters. Ouattara may be just as much of an asshat personally, but there's one thing that someone could do to make this situation better, and the one thing is getting the heck out of the presidency, and the someone is Gbagbo. Of course, it's already yielded up to a million refugees, so damage done.
With military intervention comes the muddling of intentions, so it's difficult to be too excited about anyone in Libya right now. However, we can still agree on the asshats of the Libyan Secret Police, who are widely known to have killed civilians and now are bringing those bodies out and claiming they were killed in coalition attacks, and who are maintaining a level of paranoia and fear in the capitol of Tripoli, to the extent that children are grilled by the police about what news stations their parents watch. And while the blog does not want to condone the use of gender as an insult, we admire gall, and the Barbara Frietchie-esque woman described at the link above-- wow.
Asskicker of the Week:
Kate Bornstein: "for personally picking up my life, rattling it a bit, and reminding me that I have a damn voice still and I would be much happier if I went back to using it." If there's a more succinct way to state the ideal of the Asskicker, I don't know what it would be. Kate Bornstein is a "gender outlaw," author, playwright, theorist, and performance artist whose summation of her recent work Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws is "Do whatever it takes to make your life more worth living, just don't be mean." Yes.
Historical Asskicker:
Maybe this will become a thing? Who knows. But we were reminded this week of Oscar Romero, as President Obama visited his grave on the anniversary of Romero's death during his trip to El Salvador. Oscar Romero was a conservative bishop in the Catholic church whose appointment in El Salvador gravely disappointed the Marxist priests there, who feared their liberation theology mission to the poor was in danger, while pleasing the oppressive government. Then, his progressive Jesuit friend Rutilio Grande, who was working creating self-reliance groups among the campesinos, was assassinated. Romero stated later: "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path.'"
Romero became a vocal advocate of social justice, speaking out against institutional poverty, assassinations, torture, the Salvadorean government, and the U.S. government for giving military aid to El Salvador, reinforcing their power. He did end up following Rutilio's path: in the middle of presenting mass on March 24, 1980, he was shot and killed by gunmen trained and organized by the School of the Americas and likely funded by the United States. He is now one of the 20th century martyrs recognized in stone above the front doors of Westminster Abbey in London.
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