ElBaradei

In June of 2008 I sat in the chapel at Amherst College and listened to a talk by Mohamed ElBaradei. ElBaradei was head of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997-2009. The US was the only country to oppose him for his second term, one more thing the thugs in the Bush administration should hang their heads in shame about. But he won the day anyhow and went on to serve a second and a third term.

He was at Amherst that graduation week to receive one of several honorary doctorates. His was certainly the most inspirational speech I heard over those two days, and probably the most inspirational I’d heard in years, perhaps even ever. The chapel was packed to the rafters, people knew how important it was to hear him.

He began by talking about his service over the years. He talked of how he considered himself a civil servant in the most honorable understanding of that term. His desire was simply to serve. To serve his country, the UN, the cause of peace, the citizens of the world. From him it did not sound hokey, he spoke with authenticity – from his heart and from his years of dedication. His translation of his job was to stand in service to people who needed dedicated and smart policy makers and administrators. A civil servant was someone who could, very simply, get the job done.

It might have been enough to hear something so humble emerge with such integrity from so essential a man. But the bulk of his talk was given over to what he considered the most important problem facing the globe. Poverty. It was poverty, he said, that fueled terrorism, poverty that fueled unrest, despotic governments, famine, disease, and syphilitic political opportunism. What courage he spoke with. Poverty is not a sexy problem. It doesn’t attract high profile donors, people don’t make careers fighting it, it seems intractable. Politicians and NGOs who want to address it usually select one tiny corner of the problem and make a lovely garden of their attempt to hold back the deluge. But no one raises it as the most important issue we really need to address, though it is, indeed, the most important issue we must address if we are to remain living on this planet. How brave it is to say this is our issue, this is the moment, this is what we must take on – knowing there is no simple way to frame it and no solution at hand.

As if he was staking his reputation on this moment, he eschewed talking about atomic profiles. Most of the questions were about atomic energy – did Iran have a bomb, how soon until they could use it, how could we extinguish the firestorm in the middle east? He answered the questions – people wanted desperately to know – but he returned again and again to his theme. I am a simple civil servant, I’ve done this all my life, and this is the real problem – the heart and soul of all other problems.

He would make a brilliant leader for Egypt. May the tide carry him there.