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ÿþ<titleÿþ>ÿþNew Socialist Magazine, Hell's Angel - Articleÿþ</title>ÿþ

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ÿþ<bÿþ>ÿþHell's Angel

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by Simo Punanenÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

ÿþ<iÿþ>ÿþNew Socialist Magazine, May - June 1996ÿþ</i>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

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ÿþ<fontÿþ ÿþsize="1"ÿþ>ÿþReview of ÿþ<iÿþ>ÿþThe Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practiceÿþ</i>ÿþ, by Christopher Hitchens. Verso, 1995.ÿþ</font>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ



Like its subject Mother Teresa, this book is short and nasty. It is an ill-tempered diatribe, so everybody ought, of course, to read it. 

ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

Author Christopher Hitchens is a regular columnist for the New York-based left magazine The Nation. In 1994, he set off a furor in Britain with his delightfully-titled television special about Mother Teresa, "Hell's Angel." 

ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

Hitchens take on Mother Teresa is refreshing after the mawkish adulation heaped on her by mainstream media. He raises several arguments against the portrayal of Mother Teresa as saint: her belief that suffering uplifts and ennobles those who suffer; the shoddy treatment she metes out to those unfortunate enough to find themselves inmates in one of her establishments where they will be denied painkillers and competent medical care to vindicate her conviction that the suffering will do them good; the apparent and unaccounted for gap between the huge amounts of loot sucked in by Mother Teresa Inc. and the amount spent on her shabby missions; her belief that the adoration accorded her is nothing less than her due; and -- most damningly -- her cheerful sucking up to some of the world's most notorious thugs and dictators. 

ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

This is all good, vicious stuff. But the book is not without its weaknesses. Hitchens chronicles Mother Teresa's obsessive opposition to abortion and birth control. A well-known opponent of abortion rights, however, he can't suppress his admiration for the "nobility" of the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to abortion, and not coincidentally, he ends up avoiding any examination of the church's teachings on the place of women in society and in the family. 

ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

He couples this muddle-headedness on abortion with a whole-hog acceptance of the fundamentally reactionary and racist idea that the underlying cause of poverty in lesser developed countries is overpopulation. Less-confused observers point the finger at imperialism and the operations of big business rather than at poor folks' attempts to provide for themselves by enlarging the size of their families. 

ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ<brÿþ>ÿþ

A final quibble is the price of this book. At 98 pages -- and that total achieved only by using the ol' Grade 8 trick of big print, big margins and lots of blank pages -- this is really little more than a pamphlet. At $16.95, it's an uncommon rip-off. 

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