The defusing of political anger

August 13, 2025

It was with a sense of resigned dismay that I read the prim statement about Gaza in the Sidoti interview you posted on 13 August: “Well, so far we’ve not used the term genocide. This is an issue that we’re looking at.”

I take it that “we” refers to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, of which Sidoti is the commissioner.

It reminded me of something that Arundhati Roy said some years ago about NGOs, which are meant to act independently of governments. Her comments apply with even greater force to inter-governmental organisations like the UN, which are funded by governments.

Her words are worth repeating at some length:

“Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger … They alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt the edges of political resistance. NGOs form a sort of buffer between the sarkar [someone in a position of authority] and public. Between empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators, the interpreters, the facilitators.

“In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They’re what botanists would call an indicator.”