Tuesday, February 16, 2016

RIP Boutros Boutros Ghali "1922-2016"

And Egypt's Boutros Boutros Ghali has passed away earlier Tuesday after a long life full of accomplishments in Giza.
The first Egyptian/African/Arab UN secretary-general passed away in a Giza hospital Tuesday afternoon at the age of 94.
The former Egyptian minister of state of foreign affairs was hospitalized from 5 days ago with a broken leg.
Ghali's funeral will be held on Thursday at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral.
As a recipient of Egypt's Order of the Nile, Boutros Boutros Ghali is given a military funeral.
Boutros Boutros Ghali swearing in as SG at the UN headquarter
in New York in 1991
Ghali's true turning point in Egypt was his role in Camp David talks between Egypt and Israel after the resignation of both Ismail Fahmy in 1977 and Mohamed Ibrahim Kamel in 1978 in a very critical time.
His memories and books about the peace process in the Middle East are very important.
I have just remembered how Hassan el-Tohamy , the late deputy PM and Sadat's eccentric envoy to meet the Israelis secretly in Morocco used to call Boutros Ghali as "Peter" for some reason.
Of course , his true turning point internationally was when he was elected in 1991 as the UN secretary-general  (UN SG). Now, many people attack him him because what they consider as his failure in Yugoslav wars in his term, the Rwandan genocide and Angolan civil war.
The Question here : Since when the UN SG was able to save the world or able to stop wars or genocides !? Let's admit that on the military and political levels, the UN has been the biggest failure of all times.
The UN is good when it comes to culture and social as well economic development in some countries but when we speak about politics, it is a big failure.
People also remember how he was not re-elected as US-SG because Washington did not want so after his report on Qana Massacre that convicted Israel in a rare incident.
For God's sake now in Egypt we mock Ban Ki-Moon for being concerned all the time when the whole world is on fire.
Whether you like Boutros Boutros Ghali or not  you have to agree that the man was that last generation that knew the true meaning of diplomacy and politics.

Late Boutros Ghali in January 2011 in an interview by Der Speigel 
Currently, Egypt has got a huge problem when it comes to politics and diplomacy.
Personally, Boutros Boutros Ghali descended from a very controversial political family.
His grandfather, Egypt's PM Boutros Ghali in early 20th century  was assassinated by nationalist Ibrahim Al-Wardany in 1910 for supporting the British occupation in a number of issues like for instance extending the concession of Suze Canal company for 99 years and taking the British's side in Denshawai incident.
That assassination was portrayed in Western media then as a sectarian act when it was a radical nationalist act.
Till this day, PM Ghali is not respected in Egyptian history and is regarded negatively as occupation supporter.
Then we got Youssef Boutros Ghali , Hosni Mubarak's infamous minister of finance who is sentenced 30 years in jail in absentia.
Among all Mubarak's officials, Youssef Ghali has not returned Egypt after 3 July 2013.
Despite most of Mubarak's officials are off the hook, the former minister of finance refuses to return back for some unknown reason.
I think Youssef Ghali won't attend his uncle's funeral on Thursday.
To be honest, with all what Boutros Ghali did in his life, he was my favorite politician in this family.
Ghali is survived by his wife Leia Maria Ghali Nadler  who descends from a very famous Jewish Egyptian family in Alexandria. Her family "Nadler" used to own famous candy factory that was nationalized during the Nasserite era.
According to Arabic Wikipedia, Leia Nadler's sister Sheila is married to some Israeli minister. Anyhow,  Leia Maria Nadler converted to Catholicism as a young lady.
They did not have kids but without doubts, he left one hell of legacy Egypt will forever remember.
Including that interview with Ali G

3 comments:

  1. People do not like him because his role in camp David.
    It was a sham

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha I love Ali G but I never saw the one with Boutros Boutros Ghali. He's a good sport.

    That reminded me of the Hamas/hummus sketch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. وفاة بطرس غالي.. و"الوقيعة" بين الشعب والداخلية "عناوين الأربعاء"
    http://journas.com/article/12900

    ReplyDelete

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