Today on the homepage, I have an Impromptus column, which begins with Charles Barkley and ends with the late Mark Shields. In between are the Texas GOP, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, and other personalities and issues. Elsewhere, I have a piece on the new Saudi golf tour: from the points of view of golf, world affairs, and human rights. In 2016, David Satter wrote a book about Russia called “The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep.” The less you know about Saudi Arabia, the more you can enjoy a Saudi golf tour, or a Saudi-funded anything.
Here is my view in a nutshell: Though I am a traditionalist, and fond of the PGA Tour, I am also for markets. Including in golf tours. I’m for competition. I am anti-monopolistic. But this “sportswashing” from the Saudis — as from the Chinese and others — is appalling and unstomachable.
The Saudi dictatorship has a lot of support in the Free West. It is a lot of people’s favorite dictatorship, I have discovered, not least through social media. Whenever I write critically of the Saudis . . . wow. The resentment and vitriol are enormous. People who like the Saudi dictatorship also tend to like Russia’s.
On that subject: Dmitry Muratov is one of the noblest people in the world. He is — I suppose I have to say “was” now — the editor of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper. It was one of the few independent media outlets in Russia. Of course, all of those have been shut down now. Over the years, six of Muratov’s colleagues on the paper have been murdered: Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasia Baburova, Stanislav Markelov, and Natalia Estemirova.
In 2021, Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with another splendid person, Maria Ressa, the journalist from the Philippines. Like Muratov, she has braved many dangers. I wrote about Muratov and the Nobel last January, here.
Yesterday, this came in from the Associated Press:
The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned off by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, shattering the old record for a Nobel.
Muratov auctioned off the gold medal you receive when you win the prize. (For the article I have quoted, go here.) Obviously, someone — an anonymous bidder — wanted to aid Ukrainian refugee children, and the medal was simply an occasion, or spur. This bidder has a very big heart, in addition to a very big bank account.
In Russia, there is much dishonor, starting at the top: starting with Putin, the boss in the Kremlin. But there is honor too, as represented by the political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza and the journalist, and Nobelist, Dmitry Muratov. As I have done in the past, I will quote a statement from José Martí, the Cuban independence hero: “When there are many men who lack honor, there are always others who have within themselves the honor of many men.”