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Farewell to Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuscinksi, the Polish foreign correspondent, astute observer of the Third World and fixture of most college courses on literary nonfiction for the last 25 years, passed away today. He was best known in the United States for the translations of his books on wars and revolutions, told through the eye of a nation that had itself been victim to conquest and subjugation. He was criticized in his later years for being somewhat essentialist on the matter of race and culture, and for being more literary than literal in his use of facts, but he remains one of the great chroniclers of post-colonial tumult in Africa and the Middle East, a journalist of exemplary courage and a writer of great empathy.

While riding the bus this week, it just so happens I’ve been rereading Kapuscinski. His Shah of Shahs, published in 1982, chronicles the events leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in which Ayatollah Khomeini deposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the corrupt, US-backed autocrat. As I’d hoped, Kapuscinski shed some light on what we’d be getting into if the Bush Administration made good on its brinksmanship. Bush might want to consider this before invading:

[Iranians] have a particular talent for preserving their independence under conditions of subjugation. For hundreds of years the Iranians have been the victims of conquest, aggression, and partition. They have been ruled for centuries on end by foreigners or local regimes dependent of foreign powers, and yet they have preserved their culture and language, their impressive personality and so much spiritual fortitude that in propitious circumstances they can arise reborn from the ashes. During the twenty-five centuries of their recorded history the Iranians have always, sooner or later, managed to outwit anyone with the impudence to try ruling them. Sometimes they have to resort to the weapons of uprising and revolution to obtain their goal, and then they pay the tragic levy of blood. Sometimes they use the tactic of passive resistance, which they apply in a particularly consistent and radical way. When they get fed up with an authority that has become unbearable, the whole country freezes, the whole nation does a disappearing act. Authority gives orders but no one is listening, it frowns but no one is looking, it raises its voice but that voice is as one crying in the wilderness. Then authority falls apart like a house of cards. The most common Iranian technique, however, is absorption, active assimilation, in a way that turns the foreign sword into the Iranians’ own weapon.”

Comments

Ryszard Kapuscinski had an awareness and insight into Iran and its national culture that the Bush Leaguers and idiots in the U.S. State Department could never have. It's a pity we don't have more foreign correspondents in the mold of Kapuscinski.

~ Ray Doherty
Waitsfield, Vermont

Posted by: Ray Doherty on 01/25/07 at 4:07 PM

Well said Ray! We have watched as both Iran and the Afgans have fought and drove out Invaders in recent times, but, we are too ignorant, stupid and egoistical to understand the simple fact that they will not submit to being ruled by outsiders! Unfortunately I can't say that for us.

Posted by: Ranselar VanDerpoel on 01/26/07 at 5:52 AM

No, you guys missed the point. This means are only military option is to nuke them before they nuke us or Israel. Who cares about democracy in the middle east. Most Muslims are savages that would rather be ruled by an iron fist- i.e. Iraq. This is the same religion that says alcohol is a sin yet its okay to beat the shit out of women. Who cares about democracy. We should simply bomb the country back to the stone age.

Posted by: Goody Good Good on 01/26/07 at 9:52 AM

to Goody, do you really think that about muslims? It seems hard to believe that you will expose your bigotry so openly.

Posted by: Marcela on 01/26/07 at 3:40 PM

Well GOODY, you are really a goody for the Fascists here in this country! Have you ever met a muslim? I doubt you have. Have you ever been in any of the countries where they live? I assume you just buy the BULLSHIT!

Posted by: Ranselar VanDerpoel on 01/27/07 at 8:51 AM

Ranselar- it's not BS. I didn't say all Muslims are bad- I happen to be Muslim- I'm just not an extremist. It's not bigotry, it's the truth. Muslim cab drivers in the US will not pick up passengers with alcohol, it's socially acceptable in many middle eastern country to beat / kill women- How am I a bigot for pointing out the truth? Marcel and Ranselar are both sympathetic to Islamic extremism and want the terrorists to win.

Posted by: Goody on 01/29/07 at 10:00 AM

No, Goody, I do not want the terrorist to win, no matter what country they come from. You don't seem to understand that, no matter what religion they claim, they are Fascists not religious people. Extremists are just plain EVIL people! I look at things without bias, thats all. Try it you may see a little TRUTH.

Posted by: Ranselar VanDerpoel on 01/30/07 at 6:48 AM

Ranselar- please go back to the coffee shop and roll another dooby... You are a [expletive deleted] human- how are you supposed to look at things "without bias?" That is impossible. Do you think journalists are unbias? Even those who try not to be are inevitably bias to some degree. You're right- extremism is fascism- whether it's Fundamentalist Islam or Evangelical Christians. I don't discriminate. The religious extreme cause problems. It's safe to say a lot of the middle east is unfortunately extreme! You have suicide bombings daily in Iraq and quite frequently in Israel. I don't respect that type of extremism- I piss on it... Where in the Koran does it say that is okay? Where in the Koran does it say to treat women like animals?

Posted by: Goody on 01/30/07 at 12:22 PM

Well Goody, my personal approach would be to have a philosophy that would be more acceptable to all. If the old religions are being used for EVIL then it's time to wake up and replace them.I have a saying "If you have faith, you don't need religion". It's time to put the truth out there and make some changes to make a better society for all!

Posted by: Ranselar VanDerpoel on 01/31/07 at 9:08 AM

It would, however, appear that should anyone get into a conflict with Iran (or Iraq for that matter) Kapuscinksi's comments could suggest bombing them back to the stone age is the appropriate military strategy.

Posted by: tower painter on 02/02/07 at 11:15 AM