SOME countries are victims of elegant lies wrapped in elegant suits and ties. For this reason, such countries fail and plunge into crises as a result of the genius of stupidity. This happened because of relying on the aides who the ruler considers as intelligent or wealthy due to which he makes them advisors. Through this, such a ruler fails to realize that they are failures who do not see beyond their noses, or they are profiteers who embellish failure as success.

In this regard, there is an old story known in most of the Levant about a small village where there was a cow on whom the inhabitants depended for its milk. One day the cow was drinking from a large cask of water, and her head got stuck in it. Villagers tried to get her head out of the cask, but for the safety of the cow and the cask, they couldn’t break the cask in fear of damaging it and harming the cow. They hence resorted to the mayor of the village to solve the problem, because they assumed he was wise. The mayor came and assessed the situation, and after deep reflection, he said to them, “Cut off the cow’s head.” After they did it, they said, “O mayor, the cow’s head is still in the cask. What should we do?”

The mayor told them to break the cask. After that, the mayor went and sat a few distance away from the villagers, appearing to be sad. The villagers then gathered around him to console him, and said, “O mayor, don’t be sad. The cow is a sacrifice for you and so is the cask.” The mayor looked at them and responded, “I am not sad for the cow or for the cask, but I am sad because I wonder what the villagers will do without me!”

There is no doubt that some Arab countries have fallen into the trap of these leaders and advisors, and that is why crises have multiplied in them, whether with regard to their economic and financial situation or the failure of their plans, such as Lebanon or Iraq, because they have been plagued by militia leaders or advisors who do not know what state administration means. They believe that the institutions were their farms where they wreaked havoc, and that no one held them accountable, so they plundered the national wealth, and burdened their people with debts dozens of times greater than the national product, and they did not realize that their continuity depended on the extent of the development projects of the state as a whole. They followed the popular proverb - “The miser’s money is eaten by the slick one”.

They sucked the udder of a cow until her head got stuck in a cask when she wanted to drink from it, and so they decided to cut her head off and then break the cask, even though one of them was a source of their wealth, but they eventually lost both. They did not realize that the globe is capable of feeding the world, not just their countries. The miser, who is supported philosophically, religiously, doctrinally, politically, and in the media, sets up war criminals and corrupt people as heroes and saints, as they are the source of his strength in dominating the people. So when some people revolt, they first eliminate those responsible violently, like the way the Libyan people did with Muammar Gaddafi.

When the leaders and advisors began seeking the lion’s share of the booty, which they assumed was their personal property, they became like what the British writer George Orwell said - “Politicians in the world are like monkeys in the forest; when they quarrel, they spoil the planting, but when they reconcile, they eat the crop.”

In the era of lies, cheating, and deceit, stupidity is the genius of the sycophantic advisors, who are like the mayor who wanted to fix the situation, but made it worse. Ibn Khaldun said, “The people follow the religion of their kings”. George Orwell was claimed to have said, “People that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims but accomplices.” All this is true. That is why many Arab peoples are complicit in the crime of state failure because they chose to follow the religion of thieves and stupid geniuses.

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By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times