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** March 22, 2000
A Message to Students
Estimados (as) estudiantes,
Una alumna mia me envio un mensaje preguntando si dictaré
clases el jueves.
Aquí mi posición ante la crisis actual:
No habrá clases mañana el jueves y probablemente el viernes
tampoco. No hay condiciones para dictar clases. Tomé esta
decisión hoy aunque me duele la pérdida de clases. Iré sin
embargo a la U. el jueves y el viernes para estar con ustedes.
Tomé esta decisión no porque tal o cual esta de acuerdo o
respaldando o no tal o cual causa, sino porque la situación
se esta agravando y habrá que hacer algo para resolver la
crisis con medios pacíficos.
Como profesor de periodismo, Internet y nuevas tecnologías,
sé que urge reformar y modernizar el ICE y RACSA (burocracia,
ineficiencia, precios altos de servicios, etc.) y creo que
es posible reformar el ICE y RACSA y al mismo tiempo abrir
un espacio para la empresa privada sin tener que eliminar
el ICE y RACSA. La actual cooperación entre Amnet (subsidiaria
de Cable Color Televisión) y RACSA es un ejemplo de esto.
Reformar quiere decir curar el patiente, no matarlo. El llamado
Combo Energético, el proyecto del gobierno, parece tener la
intención de curar el patiente, pero temo que terminará matandolo
paulatinamente. Siendo enfermos, el ICE y RACSA no van a poder
competir con las empresas privadas y desaparecerán. Además,
qué pasará con los 10 mil empleados del ICE? El gobierno tiene
medidas de protección para ellos, pero solamente durante el
primer año después de la aprobación definitiva del proyecto.
Probablemente, la mayoría de ellos perdirá su empleo después
de un año.
Cuando fue que el gobierno llamó al pueblo para que participa
en un intercambio sincero y abierto para buscar soluciones
para los problemas del ICE y de RACSA? Nunca hubo una semejante
initiativa. Otra cosa: Por qué el gobierno no organiza un
referendo sobre el destino del ICE? Por qué no?
La crisis actual va más allá del ICE porque se esta abriendo
la Caja de Pandora de todos los problemas de Costa Rica acumulados
durante los últimos veinte años. Tenemos que tener mucho cuidado.
El gobierno tiene la resposabilidad de protegir el país y
si es necesario debe retirar su proyecto para impedir el deterioro
de la situación. No es importante el orgullo personal o la
aprobación del proyecto a cualquier precio. Mucho más importante
es la paz social de Costa Rica. Esta crisis no es una crisis
simple. Es una crisis que podría acabar con el bién más valioso
de Costa Rica: la paz social.
Pienso que hay todavía muchas ideas que se puede considerar
como posibles soluciones. Tenemos que promover el dialogo
y aplicar medios pacíficos para enfrentar esta situación y
sacar Costa Rica de esta crisis.
Saludos,
Dr. Anwar Al-Ghassani Catedrático Escuela de Ciencias de la
Comunicación Colectiva Universidad de Costa Rica
Nota: estoy enviando este mensaje a los estudiantes de mis
cursos. También tomé la libertad de enviar copia de este mensaje
a los miembros de las tres listas de discusión de nuestra
Escuela.
** Sunday,
April 2, 2000
E.E. Cummings Paintigs, "Good" Poets and what you have to
pay for Poetry books
A real market, Anthony, this Internet, though virtual. But
then, with all these prices around and art turned commodity,
I would prefer a reproduction. Neither I thought that the
E.E. Cummings fellow had something to do with art. And also
I haven't paid much attention to him.
Just a casual idea: Who is, or what is a "good" poet?
The number of "good" poets is extremely small (in all cultures
and since we were cave dwellers). Curious, it seems that ideally
we would have a very small number of "good" poets on the one
hand, and a huge mass (almost all people) doing some sort
of poetry or poetical creative activity on the other hand.
Currently, we have neither of them. And I venture to say that
nowadays good poetry is hard to find, or perhaps I am a little
pessimist.
As to the volumes of American 20th century poetry, that's
good news. But how much will they be asking us to pay for
them. Despite all modern communication means and media, poetry
books, that is hard copies on paper, are a necessity, but
they are still very costly as if they are a kind of luxury
that you don't necessarily need to have.
I recently asked a bookshop here in San Jose (Costa Rica)
to get me the Norton Anthology of World Poetry. They imported
it, a wonderful book, but it costed $50. Perhaps this is not
too much in some parts, but here, you can maintain a family
for one week with such a sum (of course, humbly, we are not
talking about extravacant conditions); and this in a country
considered to be one of the most expensive in the world.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
(Published in Poetry2000)
** Thursday, April 27, 2000
We need an Iraqi Elian
What an obsession of the US political establishment with Iraq!
It is similar to its obsession with Cuba, perhaps a little
stronger and deeper. We need an Elian Gonzalez to throw the
establishment and its Iraq policy into disarray.
By the way, I never thought there were so many hypocrats at
so important positions in the US until I heard those Capitol
Hill politicians appeasing exiled Cubans by questioning the
authority of a father over his child. It was funny for instance
to hear Mr. Trent, the republican majority leader, presenting
his show and doing politiqueria. You could read it on his
face, he himslf didn't believe what he was saying.
But what happened to smart Mr. Al Gore? He walked straight
into the republican trap. Exiled Cubans of Miami will not
give him votes. They are in love with Mr. George W. Bush.
And again, by the way, John McCain is a much better guy than
cynical George W. Bush, son of former king Bush. But well,
the Republican Party seems bent on not winning the presidency.
They simply don't have an effective own agenda. They have
been dancing to the music set by the Democrats, first it was
the Monica Lewinsky thing, now it is Elian.
We need an Iraqi Elian, just to make the US political establishment
understand that if it is unable or unwilling to change how
Iraq is being run (to which it has of course no right), it
should let the people of Iraq live. And for that matter, we
will be happy, as a first step, with the sanctions level imposed
on Cuba and with normal treatment of Iraqi exiles. We are
not asking for the preferential treatment exiled Cubans get,
or for putting them in palaces as Elian, his dad and the rest
of the family are enjoying right now. They will soon be joined
by Elian's teacher and classmates and who knows who else.
Really, happy Comandante Fidel Castro Ruiz.
(Did you say King Mugabe, killing his white farmers, who produce
the number one export product of Zimbabwe, because he wants
to remain in power; and King Fujimori, for whose madness about
power no cure is in sight yet? Next time, my friend, next
time.)
Anwar Al-Ghassani (Published in Iraq list)
** Friday, April 28, 2000
Note: the following is my reply to a message sent by Federico
López, lecturer at the School of Mass Communication Sciences,
Univrsity of Costa Rica. Federico sent me his congratulations
after receiving my announcement of the new Web site of Sindbad
Communications (this site). I asked for and got Federico's
permission to put this reply on Diary 2000. AA
At 10:47 04/28/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hey, it looks groooovy, man!! > >:-))
Thanks, Fede, I greatly appreciate. Only you and another friend
were so kind as to respond to my announcement. Many people
received the message but didn't write to me. Most people would
perhaps like to say something, pero en cosas de Internet a
muchos les falta el "expertise" para decir algo.
Los proyectos de Internet, por lo menos los míos, son proyectos
de solidad. Trabajo/aprendo solo, con pasión, pero con poco
tiempo, dinero y software (o sea, nada de los cientos de miles
de dolares, big organization, lot of people, que trabajan
24 horas para diseñar y mantener los sitios famosos de Internet).
Asi que cuando después de tres meses de trabajo, cuando salgo
con algo para mostrar, y alguién dice que le parece bién,
esto de verdad me alegra. Claro, sé que el producto tiene
limitaciones y defectos. Yo sería un mal profesional si no
pensaría de manera crítica en mis producciones. Pero, si es
sumamente importante oír que he logrado algo, y que mucho
quedará par hacer, en particular cuando se trata de creaciones
en el ambiente de Internet. Las creaciones en Internet se
destacan por su dinamiso ("metamorfosis") permanente, están
en cambio permanente, nunca están acabadas. Esta "idiosincracia"
es un desafío continuo a la creativad, y a la vez fuente de
energía. Es el caso de un proceso interminable de solución
de problemas con momentos interminables de eureka (en griego,
heuréka). Es algo apasionante.
Asi que muchas gracias por el "Hey, it looks groooovy, man!!"
>Really. I like the concept "miniportal": never heard of
it. Is it yours? >
Yes, it is "my" invention. Well, to be more precise: in Internet,
the concept of Portal has been in use for sometime. Sites
like those of Yahoo, MSN, IBM, Netscape, Lycos, Excite, etc.
are portals. But I haven't yet come across the concept of
MiniPortal. I coined it to respond to a personal need: when
I was designing the site's info/content, I had to decide on
what will the site offer. I was unable to limit it to one
thing or another, so I decided it should be a portal. But
since I was in no position to offer the diversity and magnitud
of products and services a portal usually offers, I decided
to limit it, so I made it a MiniPortal.
However, the MiniPortal is not completely my "own" invention.
Here is something about the unexpected source and origin:
at the end of the eighties, I started to go with my kids to
spend vacations en Playas del Coco en costa Rica (that went
on for more than ten years.) At the time when started to travel
to El Coco, the most famous store in that fisher village was
the "SuperMini". It was a little larger that the standard
pulpería. The owners, a young couple, wanted to simulate a
supermarket, but since they, despite their ambitions, were
still unable to offer more than what a large pulpería would
offer, they decided to call their place SuperMini, meaning
that it is a mini supermarket. Interestingly, that couple
worked hard and was able to enlarge the store considerably
over the next years. Today, the SuperMini is still the most
famous store en El Coco where you can get a variety of products,
although not almost anything as in a large supermarket. Well,
don't forget, it is not a supermarket, it is still a SuperMini.
So, that is the story of coining the concept of MiniPortal.
Sindbad's MiniPortal offers a lot, but it can't offer what
a portal offers. Again, don't forget, it is only a "SuperMini",
a MiniPortal.
------------------
Important: if you find time, please let me know your suggestions
as to how to improve the miniportal, what do you think I should
remove or add or modify in order to attract more visitors.
Attracting more traffic is my main concern, the cardinal question,
the question of life and death for a web site.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications' info and discussion
lists)
** Tuesday,
May 2, 2000
The Granatum Serenata or a Serenade as a Requiem for a Dead
Day
Summer is dying, it is fading away, but sun and noise are
here. The bloody street here, and beyond it, not in Beirut,
but in a south European port city, tuna, sardines and the
nearby north African coast. The new pomegranates are here:
big enough to be admired as healthy fruit. Color: pale red,
not rosy, plain pale red with a slight hue of violet. They
are compact with juicy seeds inside, yes, you may say, we
have finally learned to admire lions without taking their
hollow skin inside, into our homes and wintery cognac and
nonsense evenings. The pomegranates are pale red, not the
flaming red of the blossoms of their mothers, the pomegranates
trees, where they grow on. What on earth are these Kurdistani
mothers and children are doing in this south European port
on this glassy morning - with us dreaming here - it is dreaming
and no other word - of the marine aftenoon that would arrive
spiced with the breath of street children, mariners and heavy
smokers, struggling to survive the "shortsightedness" of our
memories, and ultimately grasping the well-formed words of
E. Pound's Cantos - the first, very first -, the Greek sailors
descending the hill to the ship. So the mothers, so the children,
the Kurds, pieces from my Kurdistan, left their Ruman trees
- Hanar they would say, and the blossoms are Julnar or Gulnar
- pass them over your funny tongue, just let things be without
fear - and they came over here, and sat begging for bread,
this, this, while, I am still wandering the horizons, looking
for Ilham Rehimly, the Azeri, the clever crazy fellow who
brought us watermelons in the dead of the night, to the hostel
in Baku when the Caspian was do dark, and that after he almost
killed me with vodka on that afternoon of children selling
bread on the streets...he is the one who rolled the Azeri
pomegranates westwards all over Europe, as far as the glorious
city of Leipzig, to put them on my table. But, then, when
he went back, I never learned where his voyage ended. He got
lost between the plains and layers of winds and gales, the
Azeri pomegranates psychopath. And I will have to consume
a good quantity of my energy reserve to keep myself alive,
to resist the suicidal beauty of the girl that sits across
the table in a flaming pomegranate red dress. Fingernails,
the same color, lips, the same, and her wisper: don't wait
any longer. It is your last opportunity. I succumb to her
presence, her sublimely soft, lonely and compact body, where
I warm my hands at the measured heat radiating from her skin.
So, I resist the temptation to crush her watery body in my
arms later in the afternoon when we arrive at an escondido,
a street corner, afetr having walked away, passed through
thickly shadowed porticos, and disappeared in the crowd of
ancient mariners, fishermen and streams of shoppers. I overcome
my self and preserve the delicate balance - it is at the end
a soft squeeze of the body, a squeeze within the slowly shrinking
space between my armes, a squeeze that never evolves to a
crush. We both, strangers few hours ago, realize that we have
the right to offset our nervous disorder, the oscillation
between the red of the dress and the fresh blue of the sea,
that despite all pain, the cryptic mess of right and wrong,
we have to go through darkness before we emerge again purified
and calm on the surface of this bright day to see again the
Kurdish mothers and their children, still begging for bread,
in the hubbub of the port, under sea-gulls swarming over the
fisherboats that have just arrived back from the darkness
of night.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications' info and discussion
lists)
** Saturday, June 24, 2000
The Iraqi Who Lost and Regained His Voice
He had always passion for music and singing although he never
considered that as something beyond the interest of average
people in music and singing.
Once, after leaving his homeland and during his university
years, a friend who was studying music thought he had talent
for singing and music and came with a plan to promote him
as a singer. He started giving him guitar lessons. But that
didn't last for long. He simply didn't have the persistence
to develop his presumed talent.
Albeit that, his interest in singing and music didn't diminish.
He would always hum a line or two of a song while working,
reading, walking, cooking. Humming a song generated energy
and gave him satisfaction and maintained his spirit and forwards-looking
mind posture alive and updated.
One of his everlasting memories from those university years
are the festivities and social gatherings students from his
homeland organized on certain occasions. Singing with friends
at those gatherings, he now realizes, was an experience of
joy, harmony, even happiness.
At that time also, he organized several parties for students
from his homeland and their friends (New Year's celebrations
and other occasions) for which he did the job of diskjockey.
He didn't have much equipment or a large repertoire, but he
tried to offer the best of what he had. How easy and impressive
his work as diskjockey would be today with all the available
equipment and digital manipulation means at his disposal.
Then L. appeared in his life, a foreigner like him who was
studying music. That relation lasted for almost three incredibly
rich years. Rich in emotions, happiness, joy, and in music
and literature. But he wasn't mature enough to recognize the
value of that relation. At the end he messed things up, cowardly
chose an easier option and followed another woman who would
push him to the brink of disaster during more than twenty
years.
That was the start of his period of slavery, wandering between
continents, losing his way in the labyrinth; the start of
his sojourn in hell.
Soon he was overwhelmed by misfortune and was busy collecting
the fragments of his life. Amid that suffering and perplexity,
he lost his voice and forgot his habit of humming songs.
He made a huge effort to rediscover his roots, the love, care
and appreciation he received from so many people in the past,
and sapped that love as energy to maintain himself focussed,
to resist and repulse the evil forces that were threatening
to destroy him.
But then, at the brink of disaster and death, he went through
spiritual renovation and came out of his saga with the clear
realization that it was past love that guided him out of the
labyrinth.
From that moment on, he was never to be defeated and became
almost indestructible except by natural death, and even that,
he knew, will only happen when he, his soul, heart, body and
mind decide in consensus that the right moment has arrived,
that it is indeed time to leave.
That was the moment he attained belated maturity and uncovered
for himself a wealth of powers based on love and generosity.
His life-long suffering started to recede and was replaced
by lasting hope, joy, happiness and productivity. Only his
voice, his humming of songs, seemed to have been lost for
good.
Now, he has started to take stock of his life but only to
discover, to his horror and joy, that L. was the only woman
in his life he truly and deeply loved, that she was the only
woman who truly loved him, who understood and accepted him
as he then was, who was ready to spend her life besides him.
His loss, he knows, is irredeemable. But he will pick up the
pieces and reconstruct his love in word and image and by all
other means, display it at the four corners of the earth,
and bring it to the attention of others as a simple love story,
and above all, bring its message home to all who want to listen:
learn to recognize true love, seize it and never let it go,
this is your salvation and it will protect your soul from
suffering in hell.
Today, while cooking, he heard himself humming an old song.
He immediately recognized his voice. His voice has finally
returned home as the harbinger of his new life and new era
of search for more light.
"Mother, O Mother, it is too late, it is time to go home."
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications' info and discussion
lists)
**
Saturday, July 29, 2000
The Ritter Saga (1)
At 19:01 07/28/00 EDT, Doug Morris wrote: >In a message
dated 7/28/00 11:06:09 AM Central Daylight Time, >alghassa@racsa.co.cr
writes: > >> Now, this reads like a chapter in a
thriller. But really nothing unexpected >> from our
Ritter of Ritters. Anyway, I sincerely hope his documentary
will >> contribute to easing the suffering of our people
under sanctions. >> >> Anwar Al-Ghassani >>
> Yes, it does read that way. I`m still trying to figure
out the psychology >of those involved in this. I don`t
have any idea of what will happen, but >I`ll bet it`s going
to be interesting.
Only talented psychologists and writers could possibly read
these persons.
What will happen? I think Ritter will produce the documentary.
This will sell for millions to cable stations and other media.
What will Ritter do next? Difficult to predict his plans.
What will happen to Ritter? He will realize his plans. Leaving
morals aside, this is not a simple fellow you can play games
with. He is undoubtedly a talented and clever person. Look
how he openly and publicly manoevred all sides he has been
dealing with: Iraqis, Americans, Israelis, all their intelligence
organizations, the US Congress, the UN, UNSCOM and His Excellency
ex-Ambassador Richard Butler, etc. to roles amd positions
he selected for each party. Since he did all that openly and
on global media (he is a global media "hero"), he assured
himself presence in the minds of the global media audience.
Thus, neither side can easily make him the object for a covert
plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see his heading a talk show
thing of world politics a la Larry King, a program for controversial
issues with extremely high rating.
> My guess right now is that some personal animosities
must remain. . . .and >that Saddam obviously thinks he
has the most to gain. (Does that qualify as a >"poem"?
:-)
O, yes, you are almost suggesting the idea for one. This whole
saga of post-modernist 21st century politics has mythical
dimensions and is very interesting.
> I`m with you Anwar. Sounds like it has the potential
to make one hellava >movie too. >
I have the illusion that I could write a good script for a
movie on this, one of quality with genuine entertainment value,
a movie that would produce millions in profits. Something
different than the stupid movies Hollywood has produced so
far about Iraq. But I wouldn't be writing the script until
a producer calls and pleads (ha, ha, ha).
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications'
info and discussion lists)
**
Sunday, July 30, 2000
The Ritter Saga (2)
>At 16:46 07/29/00 EDT, Doug Morris wrote: >In a message
dated 7/29/00 10:38:16 AM Central Daylight Time, >alghassa@racsa.co.cr
writes: > >> I have the illusion that I could write
a good script for a movie on this, >> one of quality
with genuine entertainment value, a movie that would produce
>> millions in profits. Something different than the
stupid movies Hollywood >> has produced so far about
Iraq. But I wouldn't be writing the script until >>
a producer calls and pleads (ha, ha, ha). >> >>
Best, >> Anwar Al-Ghassani >OK Anwar, > Just run
the outline by me then. I`d be interested in reading it.
Although a fascinating theme, other writing projects leave
no time for a new one. If after two years from now my interest
in the theme is still alive, I will certainly do something
about it.
> My thoughts lead me to Lucas, but it would probably end
just up being >another Indiana Jones saga.
Beyond, far beyond that, a smasher!!!, a genuine literary
narrative, a pop-classic with a lot of action, plots, drama,
farce, all envisioned through hi-tech prisma, molded and presented
by new media, where word and image mix, a combination of the
real and the virtual, perceived through the hopelessly fragmented
consciouness/world vision of the so-called modern/contemporary
human being, death of rationality and the return to the origins
in search for a new "rationality" to control the emerging
irrationality that is threating to make human existence unsustainable.
(No, God forbid, this is not the eroded and jammed toy of
20th century magical realism. This should be a reading of
the 21st c. and above all an attempt to renew the paradigm
of novel. Ancestors: the great works of James Joyce, our 1001
Nights - Arabian Nights - and somehow Crichton's Jurassic
Park, a technically very good thing, original, but with little
literary value and mainly superficial entertaining, and of
course my great lady Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, one of
the greatest entertainers who spent years in Iraq working
with her husband on uncovering our ancient history, who loved
Iraq and wrote two novels with Iraqi settings.)
>On second thought, that might not be a bad idea. >.
. . I don`t think he`s had one about nuclear, chemical, or
biological >weapons. I $mell million$ :-)
I will be surprised should he follow this lamentable and dangerous
path of bribery and corruption which usually leads the greedy
to face the muzzle of a gun with a silencer and the obligatory
scanning of the stupid face of a mindless and cheap executer.
Besides, he really doesn't need to immerse himself in such
morbidity and misery. If he is chasing the truth or money
or both, he will always have a safer source for millions:
publishers, Hollywood and the media.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications'
info and discussion lists)
**
Friday, August 25, 2000
Monkey Business in Monrovia
Liberia's president Charles Taylor mounted a successful show
in Monrovia. It ended with victory for him. He arrested four
journalists and obliged them to issue an apology, and above
all he obliged them to quit their attempt to reveal his involvement
in diamond smuggling and gun running.
An amazing achievement. The world knows the truth about him,
yet he still can dictate his will and continue in power. What
a wonderful world!
Taylor has been involved in smuggling and killing since years.
Do you remember that Sierra Leonean warlord who was about
to seize power in Sierra Leone and is now jailed? I mean the
one who had the weird hobby of cutting the hands of people.
That warlord financed his war with diamonds and was helped
in that by Taylor, his associate, close friend and teacher.
There are more such leaders in this tortured world. Remember
our beloved leaders in the Arab countries who, like Taylor,
suppress journalistic activities, freedom of expression and
the freedom of information gathering. And like his Sierra
Leonean friend, they cut, not only hands but also heads.
Of course, there is no country in this world that has reached
the level of moral maturity to allow complete freedom of expression
and information gathering. However, the concern now is not
about those countries who accept, and somehow respect, this
human right in some limited form, but about those countries
where rulers control their peoples with iron and fire, and
that since centuries.
Albeit these generalizations, Charles Taylor has a virtue
over his Arab colleagues: he at least feels the need to defend
himself and comes out to speak to the media to justify his
actions. Our beloved leaders in the Arab world behave in a
different way. They never come out to justify their deeds,
they do everything comfortably. They cut and paste in complete
secrecy.
Anyway, the Taylors of this world may buy themselves time,
and even long time, but they will eventually land in the dustbin
of history, for our time is a time of huge changes and the
freedom of expression will be established everywhere as a
fundamental right. And it would not be centuries before this
becomes a reality.
Finally, an anecdote: two Arabs from two different countries
meet and start talking about how terrible their leaders are.
The first says that the leader of his country has killed many
people, that the whole world knows about that, and yet the
world takes no action against him. The second replied: "Yours
is a fine fellow. Be thankful that he allows the news to spread.
Our gentleman is worse, he kills in complete secrecy. Nobody
hears anything and no news is spread about his actions. "
We in the Arab world have indeed nice options to choose from!
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications'
info and discussion lists)
** Friday, September 01, 2000
The Happy-Happy Mass Torturers and Murderers
Yes, expect a wonder resulting from the new the attempts of
the secretary general of the Arab League (AL) Ismat Abdul
Miguid to help Iraq. Indeed expect all the goods and milk
and honey for our tortured people in Iraq from the forthcoming
meeting of the faithful brothers, the lieutenants of our beloved
Arab leaders. They are all people with great minds, high culture,
profuse talent and soft hearts. They exercise legitimate power
given to them by direct and free popular vote.
O, but wait a minute my friend, what is this: Miguid. They
don't seem to manage the correct orthography of their names.
Write: Majid and not Miguid. And look at this "In his report,
the AL chief explained that he had felt during his visit to
Kuwait in April a Kuwaiti openness upon discussing various
issues pertaining to the consequences of the second Gulf crisis
(the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait)." Glory, what delicacy and
what fine embroidery! So, his excellency was so sensitive
that his radar feelers didn't fail to sense that faint opening,
and his little soft heart "felt" some "openness" to discuss.
(Go ahead, say it in Spanish: payaso and payasada - charlatan
and charlatanaria, which are more poignant and colorful than
their English equivalents: clown and clownish act - chatterbox
and garrulity, respectively.)
So they want to discuss. Discuss what? The demands will be
the same: pay the damage and give back the boys, the 605.
Now, Iraq is already paying. So, this one is out. What remains?
The 605. Their former allies, the current Iraqi rulers, have
repeatedly stated that they don't have them. This is also
out. The strip of Iraqi territory they have stolen? Certainly
they wouldn't like to be reminded of that thing. What remains
to discuss - nothing. And despite their "openness", the rulers
of Kuwait will not set for less than eternal sanctions.
These are happy people and don't seem to have any problems.
In their happy-happy brave new world they find it desirable
to decimate Iraq's population by half or three quarters. So
let the sanctions continue. They also don't seem to have problems
with the Iraqi rulers. They once hugged and kissed them and
they are ready to do it again. But they don't seem willing
to forgive us, the people of Iraq, for what their former allies
did to them: the destruction of their palaces and the sending
away of the Emir to cultivate flowers during his short and
comfortable exile in Riyadh. And we have to continue devouring
dust.
To sum up: these AL meetings are gatherings of mass torturers
bent on mass torturing the whole Iraqi people. If that international
human rights court is something more than Affentheater (German:
monkey business) for the condemnation of only a biased selection
of criminals, then Al chief should call the court to come
in and fetch these fellows and trial them for what they are:
mass torturers and murderers.
We have enough of this old shabby AL theatre where people
devour each others flesh and vegetate in a pathological and
schizophrenic symbiosis: friends and foes, allies and enemies
at the same time, all the time; a gathering of talentless,
stone-hearted fellows, highly trained in the culture of mass
torture.
(Note for my friend Doug Morris: and you thought the Arab
world lacks humor!)
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications'
info and discussion lists)
Friday,
September 15, 2000
Olympic Games for Poor Countries
With Sydney 2000 launched and King Olympus-Sasurashan keeping
quiet and low profile after surviving the Utah affair, I venture
with this idea:
Olympic Games have so far been a monopoly for the rich: rich
countries offer the venues. They can afford the costs and
have the organizational expertise. Rich countries afford the
training and maintenance of their delegations. So, instead
of sending few fellows who first have to beg for flight tickets
and few dollars in their home countries, they send in hundreds
and harvest baskets of medals. And the poor and poorer? In
the hubbub of the games these poor devils are just forgotten
and neglected.
And drowsy king Sasurashan rests his head on the laurels of
the original Olympic idea of non-commercial peaceful competition
and the rest of the old stuff while his assistants roam around
to get nice slice from the cakes of the bidding countries
(remember the Utah affair) before his Majesty decides who
will be rewarded with the next games.
Now, they, happy happy, are all in Sydney. Where did the last
olympic games take place, and which is the next venue? Rwanda,
Eriteria, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Costa Rica, Island Chakalucy,
Sislandia? Are you nuts or just teasing and kidding?! The
rich have long ago monopolized ancient Greece for themselves;
and that, your funny island of Tasluki will never win the
bid for the games. Hey, you barely have something to vegetate
upon and you dare to play with the big boys!
But, no, no, dear fellows, let us be serious for a moment.
In order to give the poorer part of this world a chance to
host the games and, above all, to use this as an opportunity
for bringing in some material development to the poor, king
Sasurashan has to break the silence over the monopoly of the
rich. He should declare a moratorium on celebrating the games
in rich countries for the next fifty years. Wake up Majesty
and shout in the face of the rich: you can't have everything.
How to convert poor countries into venues suitable for the
games?
King Sasurashan would ask the governments of rich philanthropically-minded
countries to lend him money, few billions (there is plenty
of money out there - just think of old Tony taxing eighty
per cent on gasoline), and a quarter of a million of those
idle soldiers all over the world. He will then form a formidable
force of well-equiped and well-financed International Olympic
Cities Construction Brigades (IOCCB). So, next time, we are
not going to Salt Lake City or Berlin, but to Jemen. Within
few years the IOCCB will create a wonderful Olympic city and
prepare it for the next games with all the infrastructure
and personnel in place. At the end of the Jemen Olympics,
Lima (Peru) is declared the next venue (No worry, no fear,
by this time King Fujimori would have demised), and those
IOCCBs move over to Peru.
What is wrong with that? Can any one doubt that creating such
organized structure and billions worth of material and cultural
assets wouldn't benefit a poor country like Jemen or Peru
and give it a push towards liberating itself from misery?
But if the thousand miles voyage starts with one step, then
I must admit that the first step is going to be very difficult
for we have first to wake up king Sasurashan. That is currently
our biggest problem.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
--------------------------------------------
Published in Sindbad Communications media
**
Friday, September 29, 2000
The Prague Protests
Thanks, David, for sending the info about the recent protests
against the IMF and WB meeting in Prague.
Few comments:
1. This phenomenon of brigades of international protestors
moving on the planet, from one place to another, to protest
global injustice and misery, is historically unique. Never
before did international protest take this form.
2. It is regrettable that the protests became violent and
lost their focus and were deviated from their strict nonviolent
path. How much a factor in this was the IMF and WB policy
of not talking to the protestors, and if, then only selectively?
3. Long ago, we lost Vaclav Havel as writer and HR activist,
ever since he agreed to be president, and that not only once
but twice. The true and complete chronicle of police abuses
against arrested demonstrators will become public as soon
as enough people are freed. I can't imagine that Havel wouldn't
then feel ashamed to see what he is presiding over.
4. And, that all these abuses should take place in old and
wonderful Praha is reason for me to feel sad for I have always
known it to be a warm and peaceful place; and perhaps also
reason for Havel to come down from the Prague Castle to see
the blood on the cobble stones and think about the futility
of artists becoming presidents (Boy, that's not for you. You
should be on the street with those who just can't take it
anymore to see the next guy dying of hunger.)
5. Finally, a line from Jimi Hendrix's haunting "All Along
The Watchtower" (30th anniversary this year of the American
guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, one of the all-time greats
of rock music):
"There must be some kind of way out of here," said the joker
to the thief.
So, with all those watchtowers controlling our lives in this
global feudalistic planetary landscape, we may indeed report:
yes, sir, there is a way out of here if you only bother to
see. And perhaps, why not dear Vaclav, we may even shout with
Hendrix and jam the ears of the drowsy world:
(...)
Freedom, give it to me
That's what I want now
Freedom, that's what I need now
Freedom to live
Freedom, so I can give
(...)
from: "Freedom"
And this Hendrix fellow once told a reporter, "If I'm free,
it's because I'm always running." (Newsweek, Latin American
Edition, Sept. 28, 2000, 61.) Boy, that's big philosophy by
a man who lived twenty-seven years only. If you are to keep
running from one place on the globe to another to protest
injustice, then congratulations on your newly-founded historically
unique form of growing together as one united humanity.
Anwar Al-Ghassani
-------------------------------------
(Published in Sindbad Communications' info and discussion
lists)
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