Doha Debates hosts discussion on Western narratives

Doha, Qatar: At the start of Narrative power: Is the West promoting global justice? a recent town hall hosted by Qatar Foundation s Doha Debates a...

Doha, Qatar: At the start of “Narrative power: Is the West promoting global justice?” - a recent town hall hosted by Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates and the Bradford Literature Festival in the UK - a quote from George Orwell’s “1984” appeared on the screen behind the participants: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past.” 

The question of control—specifically, of the narrative about global justice and free speech—was the subject under discussion on July 6, as media experts, university students, and recent graduates came together to discuss this timely and crucial issue.

Novelist and speaker Fatima Bhutto, journalist and blogger Steve Clemons, and author and comedian Konstantin Kisin engaged in a wide-ranging discussion about whether we can rely on Western media to promote global justice. Moderated by journalist and broadcaster Remona Aly, the event also featured students and graduates from campuses across Qatar and the UK, who expanded the conversation with their questions and perspectives.

Bhutto, whose recent book “New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop” argues that the West’s cultural influence is lessening across the world, opened with a succinct answer to the titular question: “No,” she said. “The West has only ever promoted its own interests, often at the cost of global justice.” 

Bhutto pointed to recent and historical support of Israel as a chief reason for the unreliability of Western narrative: “Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, all of Europe has given billions of dollars, weapons, diplomatic cover to Israel—always, but especially over the nine months while it has been committing genocide,” she said. “To say that the West is somehow responsible for global justice is a beautiful story. It’s just not true. It is, if anything, a threat to global justice.”