Democracy Tree doesn’t typically stray into dust-ups acros the pond, but here we make an exception, because this story needs telling.
Step aside Ann Coulter. Fox News babes, you can take a powder. There’s a new face for the angry white male political porn genre. Her name is Katie Hopkins, and she spews hatred and ignorance with the same gusto as in her former career as a British reality TV personality. She now writes for The Sun, a Rupert Murdoch tabloid known for its outrageously salacious content.
Hopkins recently earned the condemnation of the United Nations over her commentary on the Mediterranean refugee crisis where men, women, and children have risked and lost their lives fleeing Libya, Tunisia, Somalia, Egypt, and Syria, among other war-torn countries, at the mercy of human smugglers. Her words demonstrated the utter soulessness of her shallow kitten-heeled existence. This year alone, 1750 people have died attempting the crossing — thirty times the number of the previous year. The scale of the human tragedy should melt even the coldest heart. Yet, Hopkins opted to leverage these horrific events to further her own narcissistic thigh-flashing ambitions.
Here’s a taste of her latest vitriol from a piece she penned for The Sun titled “Rescue Boats? I’d Use Gunships to Stop Migrants.” The subtitle itself exercises even less subtlety than Kim Kardashian on a bad day: “No, I don’t care. Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in the water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad… I still don’t care.”
Oh, and she’s just getting warmed up…
“Make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches. They might look like Bob Geldolf’s Ethiopia circa 1984, but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb. Some of our towns are festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum-seekers shelling out benefits like monopoly money.”
It was the word “cockroaches” that earned Hopkins the United Nations slam. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights points out that similar references were used by Nazis and during the Rawadan genocide:
“The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with the author.”
Did Hopkins violate any laws? Zeid suggests she may indeed have.
“I am an unswerving advocate of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but it is not absolute. Article 20 of the same covenant says: ‘Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.’”
Note also how Hopkins neatly conflates the term migrant with refugee. While it’s doubtful the former contestant from the British version of “The Apprentice” has a whiff of an inkling of a clue about international and European Union refugee law, that lack of key information doesn’t stop her from belching out a hate-filled rant designed to arouse her equally ignorant readership. It’s pure Murdoch puffery.
International law on refugees is clear as dictated by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and as further amended to expand its scope in 1967 to define and protect refugees worldwide. That body of law itself is sufficient to offer safe harbor to those in need. Yet, the European Union, of which Hopkins’ nation is a member, took the extra measure to spell out for affiliate states in exacting detail, through the Council Directive of 2004, their legal obligation to address this kind of humanitarian crisis.
The petition, “Remove Katie Hopkins as a Columnist“, is resonating with UK citizens, having garnered just under 300,000 signatures as of this writing. Not that Murdoch, and company, will take heed. Instead, they will likely be emboldened, interpreting this as a sign of success in awakening the dark souls of their docile readers.
It seems America has not cornered the market on the ignorance of the privileged white male (and female) exceptionalism.