Belatedly got a $1 copy of "
A Man" by
Oriana Fallaci, she of the infelicitous name, as she used to say.
I first read her in
"If the Sun Dies" a 60's book about the Mercury/Gemini astronauts. Which made them seem human
ish. She most liked
Gus Grissom, who seemed a funny guy. He burned on the Pad.
Panagulis, Orianas
great love... (Zi Zi Zi)... a fascinating read (havnt finished it) great torturer scenes (refer Dostoevsky "The Idiot").
Torturous self-examinations about how to proceed in Politics. Very 70's We used to spend hours arguing party vs personal. Looking back, it seems now,(channeling Charlie Sheen) that "An idea becomes a material force when it takes possession of the masses" encapsulates the mystery of the GreatCulturalRev which offered the singular prospect of human liberation. Haven't seen that since.
Sorry to say bill mckibben's "Eaarth" seems already dated. Pleading for urban gardens and talk to your neighbors. Seems so
last decade now. Neighbors talk when they are crowded together for survival. Maybe in Vermont, not around here.
Perhaps, after all, the Cultural Rev was a material thing. Consumers were doing Mach 2.3 over the Atlantic and Astronauts were riding 3000 ton Kerosine rockets to the moon*
Oriana in her last years (d2006) became a shrill bigot, declaring hatred of Mexicans and spouting infantile anti-Islam rubbish. Still famous for ripping off her chador in front of Ayatollah Khomeini.
RadioKim on the weekend interviewed Fatima Bhutto. startlingly honest, not a party politician. Granddaughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Seems to blame her Aunt Benazir for her fathers murder.
She puts forward the propisition that foreign Aid is the Problem.
Listening to her directness, it seemed to me that FB is destined to become a fundamentalist. Hopefully a variant where women are educated. What is religion without Sharia? If religion, which is merely (!) a shared orientation, has no say in social affairs, what is it? The 79 Ayatollah Khomeini revolution was marked by dispossession of Landlords. Islam holds no brief for great levels of class difference, Wahabi notwithstanding. So when you hear anti-Iran rantings, remind yourself -
its the baying of landlords.Unclear what will emerge from Swat valley. Try to imagine Hurricane Katrina with an active Black Panther presence.
Paki/Afghanistan looks like the failure point for Capital. If it cannot secure Pipelinestan then the great game is over.
Meanwhile USAnian response to the catastrophe is to robot bomb another household. The process goes: some unscrupulous CIA hireling in Faisalabad pays an informant for info from another informant about a house in Swat which supposedly has 'Senior Taliban'. Some teenager in an air conditioned control room in Djibouti or Nevada orders a Hellfire missile to blow up the entire household, women and children included. Then repeat bombing on the villagers who attempt to rescue the victims. This is morally repugnant for a variety of reasons. 1) In an undeclared war, but Pakistan is not even the target nation. 2) the identity of the 'senior Taliban' cannot be assured, not from normal cruise height of 1500 metres, nor low cruise height of 700 metres. 3) Assassination is murder 4) being a 'senior Taliban is not a capital offense 5) other household members are even less 'guilty 6) rescuers are still less 'guilty'
Also its just plain barbaric stupidity.
Barrack Obama should rot in a cage on the city walls until his bones are picked white by ravens.
spinning boxes
