試す 金 - 無料
The heavy price of silence
Mail & Guardian
|M&G 03 October 2025
Keeping quiet, denial and lack of courage in leaders enable genocide and corruption
n Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, three sons wrestle with the sins of their father, a man consumed by greed, selfishness and power.
Each brother embodies a path: Dmitri the impulsive, Ivan the rational sceptic, Alyosha the spiritual and compassionate. The tragedy of their family and of the wider society around them is not simply one man's corruption, but the way silence, denial and failure of courage let that corruption metastasise.
So too with nations. Leadership falters not only because of those who abuse power, but because of those who stay silent, rationalise wrongdoing or retreat from moral clarity.
At the UN, US President Donald Trump delivered a performance, half-speech, half-sales pitch. He spoke of sovereignty and greatness, but sovereignty for whom? Greatness at whose expense? It is not just what leaders say that matters, it is what they deliberately leave unsaid.
Power often hides behind omission as the powerless suffer. Climate change and immigration are painted as enemies, but the real threat is leaders who reduce justice to words while protecting their own ambitions.
In stark contrast, Barbados's Prime Minister Mia Mottley used her address to remind the world that “they make a desert and call it peace”. Her words cut through the fog of diplomacy, warning that cloaking injustice in silence or polite ambiguity does not preserve peace, it fertilises tyranny. She challenged leaders to resist the erosion of truth and to confront injustice directly, no matter how inconvenient.
このストーリーは、Mail & Guardian の M&G 03 October 2025 版からのものです。
Magzter GOLD を購読すると、厳選された何千ものプレミアム記事や、10,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスできます。
すでに購読者ですか? サインイン
Mail & Guardian からのその他のストーリー
Mail & Guardian
Mpondoland at the precipice
Its plight echoes a global call to remember who we are and what we stand to lose
5 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Mail & Guardian
Namibia shifts gears in its journey to women in power
That changed with Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. When she took the oath of office on 21 March, she did not just become Namibia’s first female president — she recalibrated the country’s idea of who belongs at the top.
3 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Mail & Guardian
What Multichoice, Canal + deal means
This is the French media company's largest transaction
2 mins
M&G 17 October 2025

Mail & Guardian
Student wins bullying case
Amara Mooloo says the college launched disciplinary proceedings against her instead of addressing the claims
5 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Mail & Guardian
Côte d'Ivoire vote relevant for region
Côte d'Ivoire's experience in handling electoral disputes through legal channels demonstrates the rule of law in action
4 mins
M&G 17 October 2025

Mail & Guardian
Paris, death destination of ambassadors past and present
Last week, as Spring dawned, the 5am news bulletin stopped me mid-step en route to my first cup of piping hot coffee.
6 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Mail & Guardian
Sex pest teacher: Mom speaks out
Bereaved mother recalled her son's 2022 suicide as a 52-year-old former teacher at the school appeared in court this week on 25 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault of young boys
5 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Mail & Guardian
Walk with us, President Ramaphosa
As with Marikana, the CR17 bank statements and Phala Phala — the biggest scandal of his presidency — Cyril Ramaphosa yet again finds himself in a pickle.
2 mins
M&G 17 October 2025

Mail & Guardian
When the lens sings
Vuyo Giba speaks about archiving South Africa's jazz legacy through black-and-white photography and reflects on Feya Faku's death
5 mins
M&G 17 October 2025

Mail & Guardian
Odinga: the relentless Pan-Africanist
Kenya's Raila Odinga, a pan-Africanist who dominated politics for half a century
5 mins
M&G 17 October 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size