tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64182190884715137402024-02-08T00:59:46.619+02:00PaulaSchmittBrazilian journalist in the Middle EastUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-79337766139568217142016-06-23T02:08:00.003+03:002022-11-25T21:17:09.183+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Minha materia sobre o Líbano, na Rolling Stone. <br />
Page 1<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIRkxKbsRQv1vsW2stoO2GQRu_SxlgySi3jmeYCR-c3212CqcN2Tm1nxFrU-VOLv-0bV3p7aFuObOevnaHgGnaW4p6HfvpEvlTvlv0tNbzmdGEfyqfzvT2uGao3vILHHDLVHvE7C1vgo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.17+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIRkxKbsRQv1vsW2stoO2GQRu_SxlgySi3jmeYCR-c3212CqcN2Tm1nxFrU-VOLv-0bV3p7aFuObOevnaHgGnaW4p6HfvpEvlTvlv0tNbzmdGEfyqfzvT2uGao3vILHHDLVHvE7C1vgo/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.17+PM.png" width="298" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Page 2<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKoLUMsTJ_t0GvkiAjTWE4vrpBFdFhxAh_kY3LuWt9HgsVCEFKq8r4ceq3zgArBlkCrvN4319FWtNrmsCgQVwS0g7J7FPq4IBZYh41vNQefx-UMmlJlSe6EKYkykxEL65sTGhQLmx29iQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.37+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKoLUMsTJ_t0GvkiAjTWE4vrpBFdFhxAh_kY3LuWt9HgsVCEFKq8r4ceq3zgArBlkCrvN4319FWtNrmsCgQVwS0g7J7FPq4IBZYh41vNQefx-UMmlJlSe6EKYkykxEL65sTGhQLmx29iQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.37+PM.png" width="271" /></a></div>
<br />
Page 3<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAa3z32fXmsBH01uO_ptGy-2bqwuG-StU1d1BbvKG0uX492JcdTiQGXZfBdp5ZeCE8uMG5z8ECMf9JLgu416GX9OqePBlxa022gTaCLvK8Ldq9rz-hxKtD5Dx6jImzD3ojU5Cd7njKpBE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.51+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAa3z32fXmsBH01uO_ptGy-2bqwuG-StU1d1BbvKG0uX492JcdTiQGXZfBdp5ZeCE8uMG5z8ECMf9JLgu416GX9OqePBlxa022gTaCLvK8Ldq9rz-hxKtD5Dx6jImzD3ojU5Cd7njKpBE/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.01.51+PM.png" width="275" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Page 4<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4cVQQt5YtouR8plfhEUAuZXamryXj-kTJK5SMjIO17NouMaPHqizsoB7ftr9mkXyoyCRZB3LE-1z6fmHqlvTGqLyQOADHnkX0u1XraTcLLXbUBCmwppPqVbc03ptOzzuANulrErgeBuw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.06+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4cVQQt5YtouR8plfhEUAuZXamryXj-kTJK5SMjIO17NouMaPHqizsoB7ftr9mkXyoyCRZB3LE-1z6fmHqlvTGqLyQOADHnkX0u1XraTcLLXbUBCmwppPqVbc03ptOzzuANulrErgeBuw/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.06+PM.png" width="274" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Page 5<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4VHuUZG1hDqO6EbfXwipOo2Tem7P_9gn7DV5sK7cCC2g6CK0kAynR1OIu_vF706vQabtVmDkC7RNH8liM1F0Xh-3zBDHLHlpWdm89pJsRzgmvvI4TbGxBAszlDeVjqsAQm_03_iwT5U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.15+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4VHuUZG1hDqO6EbfXwipOo2Tem7P_9gn7DV5sK7cCC2g6CK0kAynR1OIu_vF706vQabtVmDkC7RNH8liM1F0Xh-3zBDHLHlpWdm89pJsRzgmvvI4TbGxBAszlDeVjqsAQm_03_iwT5U/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.15+PM.png" width="263" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Page 6<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMHJGMSW0h9RSbzE17D_1hkjP2ho72O4_DDB877380wU4aiyqZSRoXvGFcgbQY6J_gHMsWqVfhmt3aiIu3ZXLu-i2jZwyiggFAK6Z3H9nmffB78TuQTiBB3G5Zt0t6EUJDTrwe4ISA7I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.26+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMHJGMSW0h9RSbzE17D_1hkjP2ho72O4_DDB877380wU4aiyqZSRoXvGFcgbQY6J_gHMsWqVfhmt3aiIu3ZXLu-i2jZwyiggFAK6Z3H9nmffB78TuQTiBB3G5Zt0t6EUJDTrwe4ISA7I/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.26+PM.png" width="274" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Page 7<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0QJb50bwlwwBRgOB8-lB6u1FjNex1dWfY_95pdD0hC5b71iZtui9lcxJsBkzYVDJT5ZqtzPBqFI9YXtRDa5qxyiRy9ISwNbDfDoPyU94jS9OQc5cp2ZtoMxDr9ZkPE5U5SFjpcqu8DY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.36+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf0QJb50bwlwwBRgOB8-lB6u1FjNex1dWfY_95pdD0hC5b71iZtui9lcxJsBkzYVDJT5ZqtzPBqFI9YXtRDa5qxyiRy9ISwNbDfDoPyU94jS9OQc5cp2ZtoMxDr9ZkPE5U5SFjpcqu8DY/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-22+at+8.02.36+PM.png" width="274" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-68101971715721220252016-01-06T20:31:00.000+02:002016-01-06T20:31:37.030+02:00Túnel do Tempo, A Visit to Cern - Rolling Stone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Túnel do Tempo, A Visit to Cern - Rolling Stone<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6cttf9MGnQGSzNjanBkVDNCM3M/view?ths=true" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6cttf9MGnQGSzNjanBkVDNCM3M/view?ths=true</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-89782588979806075232016-01-06T19:39:00.002+02:002016-01-06T19:40:37.601+02:00Bem-Vindo ao Líbano, Rolling Stone <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bem-Vindo ao Líbano, for Rolling Stone<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6cttf9MGnQGVFREOURsaFRkdVU/view?ths=true" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6cttf9MGnQGVFREOURsaFRkdVU/view?ths=true</a><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-38142400196056357492015-05-01T20:18:00.000+03:002015-05-11T17:55:43.793+03:00Of Mice and Women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Emily's List must think its followers are half-witted.<br />
Or Emily's List just knows they are.<br />
<br />
In
one of their latest spam email, copied below, Emily's List finally addresses the latest
"attacks" against its BFF. The email is shocking in its
frivolousness and cretinism. Full of empty statements, it repeats embarrassingly vacuous slogans that can hypnotise only the intellectually inferior.<br />
<br />
Using a technique long known to work on the average evangelical worshiper, Emily's List first devalues criticism of Hitlery Clinton by confining it to the usual culprits: Fox News, Karl Rove, Beelzebub.<br />
There is no mention of
David Sirota, Bernie Sanders or respectable "attackers".<br />
The alleged accusations against Hillary are never stated, either, not least, of course, that <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/firms-paid-bill-clinton-millions-they-lobbied-hillary-clinton-1899107" target="_blank">firms paid Bill Clinton personal cash while lobbying Hillary Clinton, then the same firms got $40M of State Dept </a>deals. Or that <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/colombian-oil-money-flowed-clintons-state-department-took-no-action-prevent-labor-1874464" target="_blank">Hillary made a U-turn on US-Colombia free trade pact just after she got some Colombian oil money</a>. <br />
With
no clear accusations to be refuted, there's no need for refutation, of course, and
hence not a single fact is ever presented to exonerate Hillary. Absent
is any forthright, dignified response to the many, many horror stories
showing Hitlary may be involved with a particularly
abominable type of corruption. But who needs facts or reason in such a tight-knit group of girlfriends? Who needs brain with so many vaginas? <br />
<br />
<br />
After a huge amount of nothing,
abortion is thrown about, and so are other strobe-light words like women, pro-choice, families, child-care. Emily's audience is an easy one to work on. The disembodied
voice of the email's pentecostal priest then scares the panties off the ladies by naming the boogiemale: Repuuublicaans. And then it soothes their femaly souls with a generous offer of indulgence for 3 pieces of gold (not 2,99, surprisingly). Yes, that's how Emily's List email ends, fooling the dimwitted women twice: first by pretending that Hillary needs the public to fiance her campaign, and second by pretending that Hillary is a product of grass-roots voluntarism.<br />
<br />
That
such strategy is expected to work says a lot about how Emily's List
see its audience or, perhaps more alarming, it says a lot about the audience itself.
They almost deserve a prize. I'd give Emily's feminists the Pink
Little Lace Award for Incredible Ability to Support a Cause One is Too
Shallow To Understand (But Not So Stupid As To Not Take Full Advantage Of) . But
to the well-intentioned female followers who give blind, unquestioned support
for a potential criminal of an awfully immoral sort, I want to suggest
you may be nothing but a malleable colony of single-cell organisms,
individually irrelevant but collectively crucial in helping fester the
purulence of US politics. I'd much rather be a proud housewife making awesome food in the kitchen than being used as fodder for the usual thieves.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 6:19 PM, Jess McIntosh, EMILY's List <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:information@emilyslist.org" target="_blank">information@emilyslist.org</a>></span> wrote:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"><a href="http://www.emilyslist.org/page/m/118c24e1/24847321/68a88a95/19ae0899/4291026916/VEsH/" style="color: #ee542a; display: block; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: none; width: auto;" target="_blank" title="http://emilyslist.org/?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emilyslist&utm_content=1+-+%0D%0A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++&utm_campaign=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact&source=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact">
<img align="middle" alt="Emily's List" border="0" class="CToWUd" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhjf6KV99O_2N3apkSeJwzbtfUJc5f9QQIZsrvsp7JKv26Es4DVlfB6DyM2t3Jjctkc59p0-pDhp0bTaGvl9WvNDm82qVKr8YHagD-mTxpYsO9kaPaNDdCK2XE7k6PWKypUStrj1MSNriQbSDkdSW2AcMSdXXb_q0fHUl8jVC51BJQmBLvf=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 0; display: block; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" /></a>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 0; padding-bottom: 7px; padding-top: 8px;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="font-size: 18px;">
It happened almost instantly, Paula.<br />
<br />
The second Hillary Clinton launched her campaign, Republicans like Karl
Rove and every Fox News talking head you can think of started to launch
attacks on her that simply aren't based on facts.<br />
<br />
Fact-checkers and news organizations have discredited their claims, but
that never stopped Republicans from repeating a good talking point to
distract from their terrible policy.<br />
<br />
The scary thing is that attacks that happen early can have a real habit
of sticking — and Hillary isn't our only candidate facing them.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.emilyslist.org/page/m/118c24e1/24847321/68a88a95/19ae0897/4291026916/VEsE/" target="_blank" title="https://secure.emilyslist.org/page/contribute/20150429_email_EOMWed2?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emilyslist&utm_content=2+-+Help+defend+our+candidates+from+Republic&utm_campaign=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact&source=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact"><b>Help defend our candidates from Republican attacks by donating $3 before <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1182870161"><span class="aQJ">tomorrow's</span></span> deadline. Every dollar you give helps set the record straight.</b></a><br />
<br />
When it comes to doing what's best for American women and families,
pro-choice Democratic women are pushing the right policies — like
affordable childcare, paid sick leave, and raising the minimum wage.<br />
<br />
Republicans can't win on that ground, and they know it. That's why they
try to distract voters by making up fake controversies. Or, they
outright lie about their positions — remember when Scott Walker told
Wisconsin that he signed anti-choice laws because he trusts women to
make their own health care decisions?<br />
<br />
Make sure Republicans like Scott Walker don't get away with it by helping to shut them down now.<br />
<br />
<b>We've
got just one day left to meet our April fundraising goal of $75,000,
and we need to hit it if we're going to stop the Republicans' spin.
We're just $29,254 short — will you donate $3 now?</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.emilyslist.org/page/m/118c24e1/24847321/68a88a95/19ae088e/4291026916/VEsF/" target="_blank" title="https://secure.emilyslist.org/page/contribute/20150429_email_EOMWed2?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emilyslist&utm_content=3+-+httpwwwemilyslistorgApril2015&utm_campaign=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact&source=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact"><b>http://www.emilyslist.org/<wbr></wbr>April2015</b></a><br />
<br />
Thanks for fighting back,<br />
<br />
Jess McIntosh<br />
Vice President of Communications, EMILY's List</div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.emilyslist.org/page/m/118c24e1/24847321/68a88a95/19ae0887/4291026916/VEsC/" target="_blank" title="https://secure.emilyslist.org/page/contribute/20150429_email_EOMWed2?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emilyslist&utm_content=4&utm_campaign=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact&source=WPEFE438N_digital_email_20150429_GOPattacks_inact"><img alt="" class="CToWUd" height="37" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjkgGT8hqfUCnLQmg4gHqPJtTpEHKi97kwkk__Az0C4tUWbt7QrZlmOA6SNVhju1iyWjxg5Cuz3KXGrhUYAyvSPBCFzNI0MeuHvyDEgBWKw1P0iMQGrymDynAIqOv4VdJvzg8XhmcteNaGo_pb0ECY4zFhvgUBa8HSY-niAGxJejA=s0-d-e1-ft" width="130" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
P.S. The next day I receive another email reminding me that I haven't yet donated my three dollars to Hitlary's campaign.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Paula,<br />
<br />
Today's the last chance we have to reach our April fundraising goal —
our first big deadline since Hillary Clinton launched her presidential
campaign.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;">
Our records show you haven't taken action since Hillary entered the
race </span>on April 12th — but there's still time to get involved!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-40249777366190250392015-04-30T05:39:00.000+03:002015-05-01T02:29:11.131+03:00Of Mice and Women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-48372924736804613562014-11-25T17:03:00.002+02:002014-11-25T17:05:46.242+02:00Minha entrevista com Márcio Thomaz Bastos para a Revista República. "Minha Mão Direita" <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Minha entrevista com Márcio Thomaz Bastos para a Revista República.<br />
"Minha Mão Direita" <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdnd8sW1vZXIz4xCW5mYrt1oH6nx6hmv1lZFeBRWR1D3jnbpqZf6SOp4Xjahb92dRJ4P-CW4uDXchyphenhypheny5QrKLYmHr3Yz_EVcfqbddfQ6PegME_krxTxza2ZWDRXoOKUiyo7I5cVr3w_Ns/s1600/0052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdnd8sW1vZXIz4xCW5mYrt1oH6nx6hmv1lZFeBRWR1D3jnbpqZf6SOp4Xjahb92dRJ4P-CW4uDXchyphenhypheny5QrKLYmHr3Yz_EVcfqbddfQ6PegME_krxTxza2ZWDRXoOKUiyo7I5cVr3w_Ns/s1600/0052.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCgw9V_TPYiPQQifUKNMKBKab82DekxU5S1kaMFEeD79uvi31q33Usx386LerrcdKNeX8Xkw_lnBJhpmXgxMDs7BjtfbY8r4BRrHnouTPn4gxD4hOtl-Y4SJzSXsUzgWhlcOZsJ1Puco/s1600/0053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyCgw9V_TPYiPQQifUKNMKBKab82DekxU5S1kaMFEeD79uvi31q33Usx386LerrcdKNeX8Xkw_lnBJhpmXgxMDs7BjtfbY8r4BRrHnouTPn4gxD4hOtl-Y4SJzSXsUzgWhlcOZsJ1Puco/s1600/0053.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vC3Vl0B_fdpy6yI7uzwxeSFxlxo3iu1lmJtWpzk7O5ADfwgANMWp22dDW2AyM5V5uCe6p2_bALfOkq2Pl3KGxPd0IylhGDO6HzWLmySThoP_UFb3qHq4UbI4ChNe7XKx522dTmFcKmc/s1600/0054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vC3Vl0B_fdpy6yI7uzwxeSFxlxo3iu1lmJtWpzk7O5ADfwgANMWp22dDW2AyM5V5uCe6p2_bALfOkq2Pl3KGxPd0IylhGDO6HzWLmySThoP_UFb3qHq4UbI4ChNe7XKx522dTmFcKmc/s1600/0054.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pKG_kuadBjTyqfZkKuxTvWje7YWIfWe2noMVAVe-ucTdJSvYrWtSfRWAUuPTiDhfi2mjJo_8QOq6en8m0wAts_FQVkgslHFj03vOy2Z2e2_6UR5OxgYP3bK7eEkwqCgCV6uhqm63_mA/s1600/Revista+Republica+Marcio+Thomaz+Bastos+0055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pKG_kuadBjTyqfZkKuxTvWje7YWIfWe2noMVAVe-ucTdJSvYrWtSfRWAUuPTiDhfi2mjJo_8QOq6en8m0wAts_FQVkgslHFj03vOy2Z2e2_6UR5OxgYP3bK7eEkwqCgCV6uhqm63_mA/s1600/Revista+Republica+Marcio+Thomaz+Bastos+0055.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4PzEFFxciTIiKSCBzSqrJ05SX1yEmAHH9vpiW7O0LLd9yjMlmUneWqJi15qp9DwA7Je_uuRpllpeGR9c0b9ZG_hOwWNJdFrD0Cxsu7WaKnOsRSZfxrY722PCcBeanit-tXwlUdW181lE/s1600/0056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4PzEFFxciTIiKSCBzSqrJ05SX1yEmAHH9vpiW7O0LLd9yjMlmUneWqJi15qp9DwA7Je_uuRpllpeGR9c0b9ZG_hOwWNJdFrD0Cxsu7WaKnOsRSZfxrY722PCcBeanit-tXwlUdW181lE/s1600/0056.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-56843106819156390772014-07-22T16:26:00.000+03:002014-07-22T16:26:37.651+03:00 How Can Palestinians Endure That Daily Humiliation – I Wouldn’t Be So Gandhi <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/>
<w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
<w:Word11KerningPairs/>
<w:CachedColBalance/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I was reporting in 2008 from
Jerusalem for SBT, then the second largest Brazilian TV network. I had crossed
the wall and went into Palestinian-controlled areas. As I’m returning to
Jerusalem and about to cross the checkpoint, I see a woman pleading with an Israeli
soldier. She was about 26 years old, very sweet-mannered, wearing a hijab and a
white uniform. She was carrying two large duffel bags, and kept beseeching the
soldier in English. I stood there watching for a moment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Please,” she begged, “this is a
document issued by your government. It’s written in Hebrew. You just saw me
leaving. You know I work at the hospital.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The soldier acted like the woman was
another part of that wall – no reaction whatsoever. He wouldn’t even look at
her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Please,” she begged again, her
hands and head making the unmistakable gesture of someone who asks for
compassion. She tried the same plea in Hebrew. Then she asked almost in tears “Why
does this give you pleasure?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I was baffled. I laid my camera bag on
the ground and asked her to explain what was going on. She told me that she
worked at a Jerusalem hospital (Hadassah, I think) and that every week, in
order to help provide some work to a poor Palestinian family, she would go
around the hospital collecting uniforms from nurses and doctors, would put them
in those two big bags, would drag those bags across the wall and take them to be
washed in Palestine. The family who owned the laundry survived from those
weekly batches of uniforms and would have no means of sustenance otherwise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Why is he not allowing you to come
back?” I asked. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“For no reason. I have all the
permits. They do this to me every week. They take note of my documents, let me
leave with the bags, and when I come back with the batch of clean uniforms they
make me walk along the wall just to see me carry the weight. They make me walk
for miles, and laugh amongst themselves, until I end up back here, and then the
same soldier who didn’t let me in hours before will finally let me cross. It’s a
type of pastime for them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I wanted to cry. Instead I asked her
in Arabic, hoping the soldier wouldn’t understand, if I could tell that story
to Brazilian viewers, if she minded explaining it all again on camera so our
audience would understand about the subtle ways of killing a people. She smiled
and said in English “Be my guest.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But as soon as I set up my tripod
and pulled the mic with my TV’s logo out of my bag, the soldier said “Come in,
yalla, come in. I let you.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The woman then looked at me with a
tilted head and an apologetic smile. “Sorry,” she said, “Do you mind? I want to
come back in, but I think this will spoil your reporting.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I told her not to worry: “I’m
actually happy,” I said. “I think it’s the first time I see journalism help someone.”
We then walked together to a cab, carrying her bags, and I saw how heavy they
were. We were both crying in silence, half of me in utter admiration for her
fortitude and self-constraint, the other half in sheer amazement at how she has
always managed not to grab the soldier’s gun and shoot him in the face. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-20245478450683566782014-04-21T17:20:00.000+03:002014-04-21T17:26:38.926+03:00Interview with Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic. New York, December 2012.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 class="entry-title">
</h3>
<h3 class="entry-title">
</h3>
<h3 class="entry-title">
</h3>
<h3 class="entry-title">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">(The reader will notice, if the reader manages to wade through this, that the skeptic Mr Shermer can sometimes be quite gullible.) </span></h3>
<h3 class="entry-title">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3>
<h3 class="entry-title">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3>
N.B. This interview was originally published on a blog I created called <i>DeeperSlowerHarder</i>. The idea of that blog is to publish interviews with minimum, if any, editing, and also to keep all the questions as they were asked. Journalists, perhaps myself included, often beguile the interviewer with jokes and comments that give the interviewee a false sense of intimacy, camaraderie, sometimes making both interviewee and interviewer appear fortuitously similar. Then, when it's time to publish the interview, the interviewer edits out all his or her bits, making sure only the interviewee is exposed to the reader's scrutiny. I wanted to avoid that, and have a more honest (if embarrassing) approach, so that both people in the conversation are equally exposed, and the reader is not deprived from knowing how an answer came about.<br />
I'm not sure the idea works, though. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Note: Whenever there is no question mark at the end of the question,
or whenever any other punctuation is lacking, it’s because the person
speaking has been interrupted or has been aided in his/her speech.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>PS: So first can you do a cold reading of me? It’s not gonna be so cold, of course, you already have some information.</b><br />
MS:
I sense you are a very intuitive woman; very intelligent, thoughtful,
people have great affection for you, your skills in the way of
communication, you are pretty open-minded because you travel a lot, you
are open to new experiences, you are very liberal<br />
<b>PS: What does that mean?</b><br />
MS:
You’re liberal, a champion for equal rights around the world. I say you
are tough-minded because you had many experiences and you won’t take
bullshit from people. I’d say you are between introverted and
extroverted, you spend a lot of your time alone because you travel, if
you are in a social group you can be outgoing and extroverted, but you
don’t mind being alone, you’re ok with your own thoughts and brain.
You’re able to entertain yourself. Let’s see. Loves life, not married,
no kids, couple of long-term relationships, nothing right now. And a
complicated woman, for relationships.<br />
<b>PS: You got the 'complicated' right, but the long-term bit is wrong.</b><br />
[silence]<br />
<b>PS: I had one long-term and it became a bit tragic, so I will never repeat it.</b><br />
MS: They’re all tragic.<br />
<b>PS: That one ended in death, so…</b><br />
MS: I’m sorry, what happened?<br />
<b>PS: Well.</b><br />
[Silence.]<br />
MS: Enough about you.<br />
<b>PS: Yes, let’s talk about me now.</b><br />
[Laughs]<br />
<b>PS: So, atheist or agnostic?</b><br />
MS:
I’m an atheist. In terms of what I actually believe about the world, I
assume there is no god and act upon accordingly. If you press me on a
philosophical point on whether there is a god or not, I’ll have to be an
agnostic, it’s not a knowable concept but I’d say that the evidence is
overwhelming that there is no god, so I am an atheist.<br />
<b>PS: How can you be certain that there is no god? Isn’t that as naïve as being certain there is one?</b><br />
MS:
In science we don’t have certainty in any case, there’s just
probabilities of things being true or not, in a small T true. In the
case of god of course I’m not sure there is no god, but the burden of
proof is not on me to prove there is no god, it’s on the person making
the claim for god’s existence to prove that there is. And in science we
start with the ‘null hypothesis’, that your claim is not true until you
prove otherwise. That’s true for all claims. So if you wanna say there
is a Big Foot out there I’ll say that’s nice, show me the body. You have
to provide the proof. You can’t just say ‘I think there is a big foot,
now prove me wrong’. And that’s essentially what god believers do, they
say ‘well I believe in god, can you prove for sure that there isn’t
one?’ I mean we test claims, you say this is what I believe and we say
ok, let’s see your evidence, show us your data. […] I’m a scientist so
I’m interested in what are the scientific evidence for things, because
that is the best tool we have.<br />
<b>PS: […] You said America is
the most religious of the western countries – I don’t know if that is
true – while it has some of the worst social statistics. Can you tell me
what are those statistics?</b><br />
MS: Things like rates of teen pregnancy, abortions, suicide, homicide, we are off the chart in homicide.<br />
<b>PS: Prison population.</b><br />
MS:
Prison population, right, very low education rates. In other words, the
kinds of things religious people say religion is good for, you know,
the moral fabric of a society, if America is so religious why is it
we’re not particularly socially healthy in that regard? I don’t think
things like homicides are caused by religion, I’m just saying that they
are caused by poverty and gangs and drugs and things like that, but I am
also saying that if religion is supposed to be a prophylactic against
these things, it doesn’t seem to be working here.<br />
<b>PS:
Later I’d like to talk about a subject that fascinates me, how to apply
morality without religion. I was born catholic, baptized and confirmed,
but I don’t believe in it. But I bet that most of the little goodness I
have is somehow a remnant of my religious education, considering I’m not
a good-natured person.</b><br />
MS: What do you mean?<br />
<b>PS:
I mean that my instinct is very selfish and I am very self-centred, but
I donate part of my salary to charity and I’m compassionate, for some
reason. I’d guess that’s all the Sunday masses I had to attend.</b><br />
MS: Is that out of religious convictions? Or out of political conviction?<br />
<b>PS:
No, I think it is out of uh… I call it the birth lotto in my book. I
was born lucky to have a family that managed to educate me, had money
etc etc, so I think that in a way you owe some of that back to the
mathematics of life.</b><br />
MS: Well that’s genetic, at least
half. About 50% of pretty much everything you can think of, in terms of
personality, temperament, you know, political preferences, religiosity,
is genetic. And then the rest is environment – some of it is your
parents. Either way it’s your parent’s f<b>ault.</b><br />
<b>PS:
So you mean that, let’s say my parents are very good, and they are
indeed, if I hadn’t lived with them I would likely be as good?</b><br />
MS: Yes, you would.<br />
<b>PS: I heard about the twin study but</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, that’s right, the twin study shows that twins separated from
birth and raised in different environments are almost identical on so
many things, not just physical but<br />
<b>PS: This is like genetic determinism of one’s personality</b><br />
MS: Yes, but it’s not determinism, I’m only talking 50%, but<br />
<b>PS: can you actually say it’s 50%?</b><br />
MS:
Yes, there are researches from behaviour genetics and they have a large
sample size, thousands and thousands of twins in the last half century
have been studied for their political preferences, their religious
preference, their personality, the kind of food they like, the kind of
clothes they wear. So let’s say you met your long-lost twin that you
didn’t know about. And she shows up and she’s got jeans and boots and a
top like that. This would shock most people, they’d go ‘wow’, but really
there’s no genes for picking jeans. It’s just that you have a certain
body type and your twin is gonna have the same body type, and you look
in the mirror and go ‘well I look good in this, I don’t look so good in
that’.<br />
<b>PS: What about colour?</b><br />
MS: Even
colour. You pick a certain colour that matches your eyes, or your hair,
because it looks better, and your twin is likely to do the same thing,
so there’s a slight push towards buying the same kind of clothes…<br />
<b>PS:
Wait, in that case you are associating choice to a type of physical
determinism. Give me other examples [of genetically determined traits]</b><br />
MS:
If you are politically left, if you are liberal, your siblings or twin
would likely be in that direction too. Because the liberal world view
and the conservative world view appeal to different aspects of our
personality and temperament. So, for example, political liberals tend to
be more comfortable with change, and a political systems that allows
people to move around, up and down the economic ladder; conservatives
tend to like a conservative world view that doesn’t change a lot, it’s
hierarchical, it’s law-bound, it’s rule-bound, everybody is in their
place, everybody should stay in their place and not move around.<br />
<b>PS: I was probably adopted.</b><br />
MS: Do you have sisters or brothers?<br />
<b>PS: Yes.</b><br />
MS: Are they older?<b> </b><br />
<b>PS: Younger. But they are all responsible people</b><br />
MS: You’re the first born?<br />
<b>PS: Oh, you support that theory of the first born? How can they establish that? Is it statistical?</b><br />
MS: Yes, it’s a statistical argument. There will always be exceptions.<br />
<b>PS: Exactly, which makes it sound like that technique applied on cold reading and astrology. If it is 50%...</b><br />
MS: 50% is not much.<br />
<b>PS:
Exactly. If you use binary choices in the analysis – do you prefer dark
colours or light colours; do you prefer outdoor activities or indoor
activities – you’re bound to get 50% of something…</b><br />
MS:
Like I said, in terms like a measure of extroversion, or openness to
experience, there’s a scale, you can be from zero to ten on openness to
experience. So I’d put you at like a 9 or 10, you are probably way up
there, just from what I read about you and talking to you and just from
what you told me tonight that you’ve lived in so many different
countries, and you’ve… so, travel is a proxy for openness to experience.
In other words you are more liberal and tolerant of other people’s
beliefs that are different from yours, you are less likely to be, say,
judgemental of somebody that believes different than you than, say, a
conservative.<br />
<b>PS: Thanks for your misperception.</b><br />
MS:
Compared to, say, a political conservative from the Midwest who likes
things just the way they are, the American way is the only way.<br />
<b>PS:
I understand. Oh, I saw your video with Jeffrey Armstrong and I was
shocked. What’s the story with that?
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6k7xa1NrCc]</b><br />
MS: The
story was that we didn’t get to finish the shoot that day, we were
supposed to do another set of tests, and we ran out of time, it was 5
o’clock and we would have to pay the camera crew double over-time and
all that stuff, and the producer said we’re done, we’re just gonna
finish with this and I’ll edit it and that’ll be fine. And I said ‘ok,
are you sure?’ because it looks pretty bad.<br />
<b>PS: It looks
awful, it proves you wrong if anything. So how do you explain that [the
statistically above-average number of correct hits by the astrologer]?
Just a fluke?</b><br />
MS: Yes, just a fluke, you have to run a
number of trials. If you flip a coin and you get four heads in a row you
can’t just go ‘wow,’ because that must be a rigged coin or something.
Because if you flip 100 coins it would come out pretty close to 50/50.<br />
<b>PS: Well, in that specific case I’d say the man flipped ten coins, and he got all of them right.</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, well, I haven’t watched that for a long time, I forgot what we
did. See, the proper way to do it, what we were gonna do, we would give
him some files and he would have to match people to those files, and get
something like, seven out of ten. But the way we did it initially was
not good, we had to do the follow up as a test but we ran out of time
and we didn’t get to do it.<br />
<b>PS: Who posted that video?</b><br />
MS: I didn’t.<br />
<b>PS:
[laughter] Of course you didn’t. That would be quite interesting if you
had, actually, I’d have admired the intellectual honesty. It was funny.
I don’t believe in that, of course, but I found it very interesting.
I’m quoting you here. You say: “What’s the difference between an
invisible god that is not measurable and a non-existing god? None.” But I
say – and this is my question – that Heisenberg said (and you quote him
in your book) that “what we observe is not nature itself, but nature
exposed to our method of questioning.” So basically, if ants thought men
did not exist, because they could not be detected by their scope of
vision, for example… […] Do you get where I’m going here? I mean, are
you saying that man is the final arbiter [of truth and existence]?
Because if you are, you seem more religious than most believers I know,
because it’s like you believe man to be the final product. [note to the
interested: On that particular philosophical quest, I recommend a tiny
book that reproduces a dialogue between Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore
on this very ontological point.]</b><br />
MS: There are certain
limitations to science that are based on the instruments that we use,
and so as the instruments broaden we find more things. So in the
physical sciences, something like the size of your telescope will
determine how big the universe is. But of course that’s only a partial
reflection of the restrictions of our technology. We assume that the
universe is just the way it is regardless of what we’re doing and
whether we are here or not, and that we’re just limited based on our
brains and our technology. And if that is the case in the physical
sciences… that’s why I was talking about truth as being provisional and
not absolute. It could change, for sure, but if you’re talking about
something like social sciences, like IQ tests and are they measuring
intelligence? Well, what do you mean by intelligence? IQ measures a
particular skill but they miss a lot of other things, and the SAT
measures something, the GRE measures something etc. So those will
definitely be determined by the instruments you’re using. But even
though that’s restricting and limiting, it’s better than nothing, it’s
better than guessing. It’s better than horoscopes. So I’m admitting that
science has certain restrictions.<br />
<b>PS: Ok. I don’t know
where I took that from, I think it was from one of your lectures, though
I don’t know if you actually wrote that down. My question is, would you
be that adamant that there is no difference between an invisible god
that’s not measurable and a non-existing god?</b><br />
MS: My
point with that is, if every time I ask you for evidence for god… ok,
let’s use a different example. Say you have this conspiracy theory that
the US government is hiding aliens in Roswell in New Mexico, so say
every time I say ‘how do you know’ you say ‘oh, because I heard that’s
the case’. And I ask you ‘where is the evidence for that? Who told you
that?’ and you say ‘well, they’re hiding the evidence. They’re hiding
the body.’ ‘Show me the body.’ ‘Show me the spacecraft.’ ‘They’re hiding
the spacecraft.’ Where is the document? ‘They blacked out the document,
see, here is the document with blacked-out bits.’ So at some point you
have no evidence at all, so what’s the difference between hidden secret
aliens and no aliens? It’s the same with god. If you say…<br />
<b>PS: This is mostly a rhetorical answer.</b><br />
MS:
Yes, it is. If god is outside of space and time and he is supernatural,
then I ask ‘how do you know he’s there?’ ‘Well, because he answers
prayers.’ ‘Oh, so he sticks his hand into the pot to stir the particles
to cure your cancer, fix your heart valve.’<br />
<b>PS: You mean
to say that once god intercedes with the natural world, then we should
indeed be able to measure that interference and have evidence?</b><br />
MS:
Right. So scientists measure the natural world and if god is tweaking
it in some way then we should be able to measure that. Does that make
sense?<br />
<b>PS: It does. You say in your book that ‘shouldn’t
we know by now that ghosts cannot exist unless the laws of science are
faulty or incomplete?’ My question is, what makes you think that the
laws of science are complete? Where did you get that from? Newtonian
physics was the only physics that existed until very recently, but now
we know that depending on the dimension – size-wise even – the laws are
different.</b><br />
MS: They are supplemented. Newtonian physics is supplemented by Einstein, not displaced.<br />
<b>PS: No, it’s a whole new reality, with different laws.</b><br />
MS:
Sort of. It’s an expansion of reality. If you want to go on a
spacecraft tomorrow you just pretty much use Newtonian mechanics.<br />
<b>PS:
But I’m not talking about spacecraft. If you want to work in the Large
Hadron Collider it’s a whole new different world with different
properties.</b><br />
MS: Different physics, you’re right. So, on
the ghost question, even if the laws of nature are not complete, and
it’s possible there are ghosts, where is the evidence, what is the
mechanism by which a disembodied soul floats off and is able to hang
mid-air, so to speak, in what substance, what is the substrate holding
the pattern that represents your soul, what would that be? We have no
physics for that.<br />
<b>PS: For the record, I don’t believe in
soul myself, but I am not giving any lectures on the subject. I find it
interesting that you… For example, the Large Hadron Collider just came
up with a new type of matter. [….] You don’t believe that thought can be
transmitted between people, right?</b><br />
MS: No, not other than the normal way, like we are doing…<br />
<b>PS: You mean by sound, right?</b><br />
MS: Right.<br />
<b>PS: Well, couple of hundred years ago we wouldn’t be able to say how sound was transmitted, right? We didn’t know sound waves.</b><br />
MS:
That’s right. But there’s nothing in terms of thought transfer that
needs explaining. In other words, you say ‘how do you explain how people
can read each other’s mind,” my answer is, they can’t.<br />
<b>PS: Because nobody has.</b><br />
MS: They can’t. People say they can, but when you put them under controlled conditions in a lab, then the effect disappears.<br />
<b>PS:
I find it plausible that there may be waves that we haven’t yet… I
don’t see why we would have to know every existing wave in the world. I
don’t doubt that there can be types of waves that one person could emit,
and another could receive, but we just don’t have the machine to
capture it. Two hundred years ago, if I told you something about the
radio you would think I am nuts.</b><br />
MS: Right. So is there something equivalent to the radio in the brain, that’s what you’re asking.<br />
<b>PS: No, not equivalent.</b><br />
MS: Analogous.<br />
<b>PS:
I mean to say that if you are scientifically agnostic too, you know
that there can be infinite things that we don’t know about yet.</b><br />
MS: But that doesn’t mean they are there just because we can imagine them.<br />
<b>PS: But are you so adamant that they aren’t there?</b><br />
MS:
Analogously, J.K. Rowling can make up an entire world of magic but
nobody thinks that might be real, they know she just made that up. So
the fact that humans are capable of making up fantastical worlds doesn’t
mean they are true. So neuroscientists have a pretty good handle now on
what the brain does, how it operates, the neurochemical transmitters,
the electrical impulses when the neurons fire, how small the gap is…<br />
<b>PS: We don’t even know what consciousness is.</b><br />
MS: But the waves don’t extend beyond the skull.<br />
<b>PS: How do you know?</b><br />
MS: We never measured it.<br />
<b>PS: Exactly.</b><br />
MS: You’re reversing the argument.<br />
<b>PS: Do you know what consciousness is? That hasn’t even been defined yet.</b><br />
MS:
The fact that consciousness is spooky and weird, and quantum physics is
spooky and weird, it doesn’t mean they are connected.<br />
<b>PS: I’m not saying they are connected.</b><br />
MS:
This is a big theory, about quantum consciousness. This is the theory
you’re referring to, of people reading each other’s minds, that it’s not
radio waves, or sound waves, or electromagnetic spectrum, it’s quantum,
it’s quantum action at a distance. So my neuron fires and causes the
subatomic particles to affect the subatomic particles in your neurons
and cause your neurons to fire in the same pattern mine is firing and
you’d read my thoughts. Well, first of all, if that was true that would
not be the paranormal, it wouldn’t be ESP, it would just be
Neurophysics, something like that. It would just be part of the natural
world.<br />
<b>PS: Ok, I want to talk about that. What I find
funny in your reasoning is that you insist on that, that once something
is proven or explained, it is not paranormal anymore. It seems that you
are focused on whether something is called paranormal or not, whereas I
think the people you are arguing with, they don’t care if something is
considered to be paranormal or not, they care about whether that thing
exists.</b><br />
MS: Yes, I agree. You’re right.<br />
<b>PS: Mind-reading. People don’t necessarily care if that is like, a gift from god or…</b><br />
MS: What I’m saying is that, I don’t think it exists. Forget the psychics on TV and the people who talk to the dead<br />
<b>PS: Think of a number, quickly.</b><br />
MS: Seven.<br />
<b>PS: Aaaaaaaaargh!I said <i>think</i> a number, not <i>say</i> a number. I was thinking seven.</b><br />
[laughter]<br />
<b>PS: Never mind. I always get right once, and only the first time.</b><br />
[…]<br />
MS:
So we just put people in a lab and say ‘ok, so in the other room
there’s this person and he is sending you a thought. What is it?’ and if
that’s too nebulous you have the Zener cards, you know, the wavy line,
the circle, the square, the triangle. And you just pull it up and ask
which one do I have. And you do that 500 times, and they never do better
than one out of five, 20%<br />
<b>PS: Which is just</b><br />
MS: Chance. It’s chance. Under controlled conditions, the effect disappears when you tighten the controls. […]<br />
<b>PS: Do you believe in that quantum principle that the observer interferes with uh</b><br />
MS: Yes, at a subatomic level.<br />
<b>PS: Ok. You think thought is ‘over-atomic’?</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, I do. Because neurons firing and swapping chemicals, those are
molecules, they are much bigger, they are orders of magnitude bigger
than subatomic particles, so the effects would wash out. The moon is
there whether you look at it or not. The moon is not like a subatomic
particle, even though Deepak disagrees with me on that.<br />
[…]<br />
<b>PS:
I’d like to talk about things I didn’t see you covering very much but I
did hear you mention. For example, organic products. Do you have a
problem with organic food?</b><br />
MS: No, well, it depends on
what you mean by organic. It’s all organic. It’s just to what extent is
has been modified chemically, I guess, or genetically.<br />
<b>PS: Does it bother you? Do you have a problem with genetically modified stuff?</b><br />
MS: No, I don’t have a problem with genetically modified organisms, I’m fine with them, frankenfood, bring them on.<br />
<b>PS: Ok, so let me ask: have you ever been given money by any company that works with genetically</b><br />
MS: No.<br />
<b>PS: Has Monsanto ever sponsored any</b><br />
MS: Monsanto [laughter], there it is.<br />
<b>PS: No? I’m asking because you believe in evolution, and you call evolution ‘functional’.</b><br />
MS: But Paula, we’ve been modifying food for ten thousand years.<br />
<b>PS:
Wait, that’s something else, that’s hybrid [breeding]. The plant has to
fall in love with the other little plant, they have to have some
chemistry. [laughter]. You yourself call evolution ‘functional
adaption’, correct?</b><br />
MS: Yes.<br />
<b>PS: And such
evolution is beautiful in its quote unquote perfection because time
equals adaptation therefore perfection in purpose or function. Now, if
you do believe that, how can you think it’s fine that someone would come
and just invent a new type of corn that can never give birth to other
little corns…</b><br />
MS: Yes, but you know what the original
corns look like, right? They were an inch tall, half an inch wide,
you’re not gonna feed very many people out there, so we have been
genetically modifying<br />
<b>PS: Oh, because we <i>are</i> feeding the world, huh?</b><br />
MS: Well, what do you want to do with the seven billion people, let them die?<br />
<b>PS: So many are dying of starvation already</b><br />
MS: I know, you want more people to die?<br />
<b>PS:
No, I just don’t see how genetically modified is feeding anybody. I
just see how they are actually preventing people from having new
cultivation from the seeds they bought, because they end up buying
copyrighted seeds.</b><br />
MS: I think we’re talking about two
different things. There’s the business of mega-farming and all that and
then there is the issue of how we’re gonna feed… if we ban all
genetically modified foods of any kind we’re going to go back to
hunter-gatherers. Farming has already modified cows and chickens and all
that stuff. None of those animals are natural.<br />
<b>PS: Do you have a problem with how animals are kept in captivity</b><br />
MS: Well, I’m not crazy about the beef industry.<br />
<b>PS: Chicken</b><br />
MS: Yeah, it’s pretty disgusting. And when I see something about that I don’t eat meat for a few days until I forget.<br />
<b>PS: But do you make it a point to eat from free range</b><br />
MS:
I do when I can, I prefer…uh, I guess I don’t have a big dog in that
fight, it’s not a big thing for me, I guess politically I feel like
we’ve already got so far down the road of civilisation that we can’t go
back to the grassroots of living off the land because there’s not enough
ways to feed that many people.<br />
<b>PS: Between margarine and butter, which one would you choose?</b><br />
MS: Butter. I don’t eat margarine.<br />
<b>PS: Because you trust the cow better than the chemist?</b><br />
MS: Yeah, I guess a little bit, yeah.<br />
<b>PS: Evolution?</b><br />
MS: Yeah, I trust evolution.<br />
<b>PS: I mean the evolution of the cow and the milk and how the digestive enzymes evolved</b><br />
MS: Of course I know that the cow has been modified a lot in ten thousand years<br />
<b>PS: Has it really?</b><br />
MS: Yeah.<br />
<b>Q - Was the cow also one inch long and half an inch wide?</b><br />
[laughter]<br />
MS: I mean, I’m not crazy about the way animals are treated but I think we’ve made progress on that front.<br />
<b>PS: You could help.</b><br />
MS: By joining PETA?<br />
<b>PS:
Look, I’m not a vegetarian and I can’t understand it, I find it so
artificial. If anything, nature teaches us that one animal eats another
animal, and I don’t believe in waste either, I feel if an animal is dead
you might as well eat it. But I don’t like the idea of making an animal
miserable and deprive it of its natural gift of grazing and basking in
the sun, it’s very sad the way they are treated. And I can’t stand
people who want to save the whales and don’t give a damn about the cows.</b><br />
MS:
I think I’d rather save the whales than the cows. They have bigger
brains. See, I adjust my opinions on that based on approximation to
consciousness.<br />
<b>PS: [Approximation] to man, the ultimate product.</b><br />
MS: Yeah, I guess so.<br />
<b>PS:
So there is a value scale for you in nature, man is obviously the
highest, and the closest an animal is to man the more deserving it is of</b><br />
MS: Yes, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, dolphins, porpoises, whales<br />
<b>PS: So you wouldn’t like people eating dolphin meat.</b><br />
MS: No, I’m against all that<br />
<b>PS: But cow is fine.</b><br />
MS:
Yes, we’re going down the scale: chicken, even better, fish. You know
fish have tiny little brains, they are not even really brains. You know,
so I’m less concerned about that, it bothers me less.<br />
<b>PS: And you’re measuring intelligence by brain size?</b><br />
MS: It’s not intelligence, just probably consciousness, or awareness, or something like that.<br />
<b>PS: You’re equating consciousness to brain size.</b><br />
MS: Yeah.<br />
<b>PS: Or [equating it] to evolution.</b><br />
MS: Yes. I think that chimps and dolphins feel more pain than fish.<br />
<b>PS: You know that porpoises kill other porpoises, right, baby porpoises?</b><br />
MS: Yes. Chimps do too. Chimps are nasty. I’m not judging based on good or evil.<br />
<b>PS: So you’re judging them based on their capacity to feel pain?</b><br />
MS: Yeah, pain and awareness.<br />
<b>PS: Sentiment?</b><br />
MS:
Sentience. And also to how social they are, how connected to other
members of their species, if you take them away from their mother or
their child…<br />
<b>PS: So if you take a little fish from its school</b><br />
MS: Yeah, but you see, fish are not social in the same way that mammals are social<br />
<b>PS: You clearly haven’t watched Finding Nemo</b><br />
[laughter]<br />
<b>PS: I read that you wrote or gave a lecture entitled ‘Confessions of a former environmental sceptic’ but I couldn’t see it.</b><br />
MS: Oh. That’s available. What I wrote is that I used to be sceptical of global warming.<br />
<b>PS:
Yes, that’s the thing, I keep hearing you say that but I never find the
original material [you’re now disowning]. I don’t know if you’ve
deleted all the videos where you spoke of your skepticism…</b><br />
MS: No! Maybe somebody is out there doing that<br />
<b>PS:
A friend clearing your past. [laughter] And the only thing I have on
that is you saying ‘I used to be a skeptic on global warming.’ Can you
tell me more about that?</b><br />
MS: Yes. So when I was in
college the whole ecology movement was getting going and there were all
these prophecies of doom and gloom, you know, the rainforest will be
gone by the eighties, we’ll run out of oil, precious minerals and all
that stuff will be depleted, and over-population, we’re not gonna make
it to the nineties, and none of that happened, it’s not even close to
happening, so I thought you know, that’s a bunch of bullshit, I think
this is more of a political movement, sort of a quasi-religious
movement, sort of like ‘religion for leftists,’ and I still think
there’s something to that, the sacred values that the conservative right
has about god and marriage and the body and sex, liberals have with the
purity and sanctity of the environment, the air, the water, that sort
of thing, food can be pure and natural. So I think they’re the same
sacred values that we hold, but liberals and conservatives apply them
differently, in different places. So anyway, I was sceptical of all that
for the longest time, and I wasn’t that interested in the subject in
terms of spending a lot of time studying it. But in the early 2000’s, at
Skeptic Magazine, it became a hugely important topic, people kept
sending me articles, you know, about this side or that side.<br />
<b>PS: And you were still sceptical.</b><br />
MS:
Yes, then I actually started reading the literature, because I hadn’t
really looked at that carefully in ages, and I’m not an environmental
scientist so what do I know, I am just an observer like you or anybody
else. So I started reading about it, and I met Al Gore at TED and I
listened to him talk, and I know he is a political, uh, he is out there
as an activist, but still I can on my own go check his sources and
enough of the evidence started to accumulate…<br />
<b>PS: When did you change, then?</b><br />
MS: Around 2006, I think, 2007.<br />
<b>PS: Whoa.</b><br />
MS: Whoa? Is that late in the game?<br />
<b>PS: Oh yes, that’s very late in the game.</b><br />
MS: Well, I came around late.<br />
<b>PS: I like that you had the… uh. Changing one’s mind is usually a sign of intelligence.</b><br />
MS: Oh thank you. [laughter]<br />
<b>PS: That’s not how I spotted yours, I mean. But considering that you can be wrong, I mean, what a revelation for you, no?</b><br />
MS: I can be wrong about that.<br />
<b>PS: And you could be wrong about other things as well.</b><br />
MS: Yes. It would be interesting to see, like, in 30 years from now if the sea levels haven’t risen and all these things.<br />
<b>PS: But they are rising, no?</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, a little bit. But the doomsayers say it’s gonna raise by meters,
not millimetres, so we’ll see, that’s a test, we can see what happens.<br />
<b>PS: When I was at CERN, the laboratory</b><br />
MS: You were there?<br />
<b>PS: Yes, I wrote a piece for Rolling Stone.</b><br />
MS: Cool.<br />
<b>PS:
I spoke to various scientists and I asked all of them about god. I was
actually writing about quantum physics but the god bit was, like, a
standard question. And most of the answers I got were variations of, “it
makes no sense to discuss negative time, or time before time. Time
begins at the Big Bang and that is the zero mark.” But that is a
convention, right, it’s a mark decided by man that zero is the moment of
the Big Bang. Do you see a lot of that in science, human limitation
used to determine paradigms?</b><br />
[I shortened this question because my examples were too convoluted. I thank Shermer for making sense of them]<br />
MS:
So the examples you gave there, I mean, physicists have to define a
system, in some way, and so they do (that) with mathematics. In my
field, social sciences, we talk about the operational definition of
something. You have to operationally define it: exactly what do you mean
by depression, or intelligence, or whatever? You have to put a number
on it so we can then put in different conditions and measure how the
numbers go up or down. That’s kind of restraining but it’s necessary
because without that then we have no objective standards to go by and it
just boils down to my opinion versus your opinion. So one thing we know
from cognitive psychology is that our biases are so powerful that I am
very likely to find – even if I am trying to be careful – I’m very
likely to find what I want to be true, what I’m expecting to be true,
what I’ve guessed as true. So we have to go to great lengths to avoid
the confirmation bias, for example. That’s why it’s good to have
thousands of experimenters checking those numbers and writing those
experiments so it’s not just you and me and… That’s the problem with the
cold fusion thing, there were just two guys in a lab and they never
checked it, they never had somebody else check it before they made their
announcement<b>.</b><br />
<b>PS: There was no peer review?</b><br />
MS: No peer review, no. They held a press conference and <i>then</i> they released their data and their methods and then everybody ran out…<br />
<b>PS:
Ok, on the same vein of this subject, I’d like you to tell me how are
experiments decided upon, who funds them. Explain to me what’s the
system, the procedure (for an experiment to be conducted) because I also
want to talk about what I see as your lack of scepticism of the
corporate science nowadays, because experiments start with a goal in
mind.</b><br />
MS: Not just corporate, government. There’s really
more money in government funding of science than corporate funding of
science. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of
Health and the National Institutes of Mental Health, they are huge, you
know, billions and billions of dollars<br />
<b>PS: Of public money</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, of public money. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, your point is a
larger one, that might this not have built into it hidden biases, it’s
like, the people who sit on the committee decide who gets which money,
they themselves are people with an agenda? Yes, of course, absolutely,
it’s a big problem. It’s no different than a corporation that wants to
fund research that happens to affect its bottom line. You know, these
are all biases that are for real, and so I am sympathetic to outsiders
who want to make a contribution but they can’t get funding, they can’t
get telescope time, say, because the people who sit on the committee
don’t like their particular line of research and this area over here is
hot now so they give the telescope time to all those people. Yes, that’s
a problem, it’s a built-in limitation to science.<br />
<b>PS: Does that hamper in any way your work? Have you ever been funded by the government or a private company?</b><br />
MS: No, no.<br />
<b>PS: Never?</b><br />
MS: No.<br />
<b>PS: Everything you do is financed by Skeptic…</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, my research is pretty much… I mean, when I write a book I get a
book advance from my publisher, so that’s corporate money, I guess, but I
don’t think that’s what you’re talking about. I don’t get any money
from like, a pharmaceutical company or… Probably the closest thing would
be Templeton Foundation hired me to edit some essays, but they said
‘you can edit them in any way you want, you can hire anybody you like to
write these essays.’ The essay question was “Does science make belief
in God obsolete?” So I said “can I have atheists?” and they go “oh,
please, get Hitchens if you can.” So I did, I got Christopher Hitchens
and they paid him to write an essay. That’s just work for hire, that’s
not quite the same thing. I’d say drug research is a big problem, it’s
not what I do, but I read people who study this and I can see where the
biases are.<br />
<b>PS: Ok, so when you criticise natural medicine, or…</b><br />
MS:
Oh, I’m doing on a different level. See, there’s no such thing as
alternative medicine, there’s just medicine. There’s only medicine that
has been tested and that hasn’t been. It’s not that the non-tested ones,
traditional medicines are wrong, we just don’t know if they work or
not.<br />
<b>PS: Though you agree that if I am, say Pfizer, I have
no interest in funding the research of an herb that I cannot patent,
right? Why would I want to know if an herb is efficient in fighting
cancer, for example, or</b><br />
MS: Why wouldn’t you be able to patent it, or patent a molecular structure similar to that…<br />
<b>PS:
Then I would conduct a secret research and then I would tweak the
molecule and say that the medicine I just invented cures cancer.</b><br />
MS:
Yeah. I’m actually ok with that to a certain extent, because the
government is so involved in the approval of drugs, the FDA, that these
pharmaceutical companies have to spend enormous amounts of money to get a
drug approved, and so they have to make money, they’re a company, so
unless you wanna make public all drug companies or something like that…
But even there you’d still gonna have other bias problems, who is
deciding which drugs should get research money or not. You see,
presumably private corporations like Pfizer, the marketplace kinda
directs them. If there is a clamouring for aids drugs or a particular
kind of cancer that they need a drug for, then they are responding to a
market function, a market demand. I’m not very confident that the
government is gonna do that any better. Because the government is often
beholden to special interest groups that give them money, they give
politicians money. And it might not be that the guy who gives the most
money is representing us, the people, and what we want. Let’s say cancer
is the number one killer but the guy, let’s say it’s David Koch, of the
Koch brothers, and they give some politician a gazillion dollars to
fund some research on AIDS because he has AIDS, or something like that.<br />
<b>PS: Speaking of Koch, you call yourself a conservative. I heard</b><br />
MS: No, libertarian.<br />
<b>PS: No… I heard you</b><br />
MS: I am fiscally conservative, socially liberal.<br />
<b>PS: Ah, ok.</b><br />
MS: Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. You have to qualify that.<br />
<b>PS:
No, but when you said it, you said… I’ll find the video – damn it, I
will have to go through all that again. Wait, I remember, you were
talking to Dinesh.</b><br />
MS: Oh yes, yes.<br />
<b>PS: And you said “we are both conservative.”</b><br />
MS: He doesn’t mean on social issues. He means<br />
<b>PS: No, but you said it, not him.</b><br />
MS: He knows I’m pro-gay marriage and that kind of stuff. Separation of church and state…<br />
<b>PS: So basically you are against the welfare state, medicare and all that?</b><br />
MS: I’d rather the market tried to solve those problems in a more efficient way, as a general principle…<br />
<b>PS: Yes, because the market has all intention of saving old people from dying, wink</b><br />
MS: Today I was reading an article about New York taxi cab permits.<br />
<b>PS: The medallion.</b><br />
MS:
Yes, the medallion. They are a million dollars, it’s all unionised, the
government controls it, and there’s companies trying to get in, where
you can get an app on your iphone and you tap the app and type in where
you are and a car just comes and gets you and takes you where you wanna
go, it’s just a company. And they’re starting to do this and the taxi
unions just go ‘no no no no, because then anybody can do this and we’d
be out of business.’ So they are pressuring politicians to ban this
private taxi.<br />
<b>PS: You call it taxi unions. I’d like to
look into it. I think it’s way more interesting what happens in Seville,
where the law does not allow you to own a taxi if you are not the
driver. That is fair. Why? Because it allows people to be their own
bosses. In Sao Paulo, when I lived there, there were a few companies
that basically owned all taxis, it was a cartel, and taxi drivers had to
pay the taxi rental per day. If they didn’t have as many trips as they
needed to cover the payment, they’d just pay to work. It was almost a
type of slavery, awful.</b><br />
MS: I do think it’s good to have
some kind of social safety net to help people that really need help. No
question about it, there’s a certain percentage of the population that
is mentally ill and they have real problems and they can’t work. Yes, we
have a moral obligation as a society to take care of the… yes, I agree,
but the moment you set it up and then you offer free goods, then people
that don’t necessarily need it or they only need it for a little while
but they extend it and, in other words it’s called the free-riding
problem.<br />
<b>PS: Don’t tell me you also believe homeless are just people who don’t want to work?</b><br />
MS: No. Ok, I’m not talking about that. I’m not talking about mentally ill people on the streets<br />
<b>PS: Not mentally ill. Do you think there’s a job for everybody in the world?</b><br />
MS: There could be.<br />
<b>PS: “There could be” is something else.</b><br />
MS: That’s my superstition. [laughs]<br />
<b>PS: Right, exactly, I was just going to say</b><br />
MS: I think we are on the road to abundance. I’m pretty optimistic about<br />
<b>PS: My god, what drug are you on? I want some.</b><br />
MS: [laughter] You want some?<br />
<b>PS: You are a very optimistic person, right?</b><br />
MS:
Yes, I am, it’s my nature. I think things are getting better, I think
more people in more places have more freedom now than ever before. I
mean, I just saw the Lincoln movie, you know. Here, here Lincoln barely
got past the idea of banning slavery, I mean, and it was the Democrats
who were fighting him, you know, the Democrats.<br />
<b>PS: I know.</b><br />
MS: This was not that long ago. So we’ve come a long ways just in our century.<br />
<b>PS: But poverty is increasing…</b><br />
MS: And remember, women could not vote until 1920. I mean, one of the arguments against the passage of the 13<sup>th</sup>
amendment was, “what’s next, you’re gonna let women vote? I mean, come
on!” That’s how ridiculous it sounded to the ears of people living in
the 1860’s, in America, the land of the free. So, I’m encouraged by
that. I think gay marriage in 50 years will be just like that. People in
50 years will look back and go, “what were they thinking, they wouldn’t
let gays get married, are you kidding me?”<br />
<b>PS: Yeah, I
think you’re right about that. But I think the exclusion will no longer
be about that, it will be those who have money and those who don’t have.</b><br />
MS:
Well, the solution is just to get more people money, just abundance.
Even poor people today have way more than people had 50 years ago. I
mean, the poorest people in America today, they have televisions and
refrigerator and a microwave, most of them have cell phones<br />
<b>PS: My god, they eat Cheetos for dinner, hello.</b><br />
MS: But it’s still better than it used to be.<br />
<b>PS: Is it really?</b><br />
MS: We have to take the long perspective. Yes, it’s better.<br />
<b>PS: These people now weigh 300 and frigging kilos.</b><br />
MS:
Ok, so, when you have a problem of over-eating, that’s very different
from starvation. They over eat, they have too much food.<br />
<b>PS:
They eat the wrong food. And they don’t have money to buy what I eat,
which is to go to Whole Foods [note from the interviewer: since I
learned of the sale of GMO foods at Whole Foods, I am no longer a
consumer. If I were still in New York, I’d take the trouble to walk
longer to shop from Trader’s Joe.]</b><br />
MS: Ok, since you
brought that up. So here is the solution, compassionate capitalism.
That’s John Mackey’s theory, the CEO of Whole Foods. No, no, not
compassion – what is it called – compassion capitalism, or something
like that. So he believes in taking care of people, like your employees.
You pay your employees really well, you give them a great healthcare
program, you take care of the people in the community near the store,
they do all this stuff. So this is the future of capitalism.<br />
<b>PS: Tell me a country that applies a type of capitalism that you admire.</b><br />
MS: Well. Some of it here. It’s an approximation. We have a ways to go.<br />
<b>PS: Whoa. Shit.</b><br />
MS:
Well, I’d say the modified economies of northern European countries
seem to work pretty well. Those governments are more intrusive than I’m
comfortable with, because I’m an American, but I was just in Denmark and
people seem happy.<br />
<b>PS: Intrusive? What do you mean by
intrusive? I’d like you to qualify it because I don’t know a country
that is more intrusive than yours, as far as espionage goes, reading
emails</b><br />
MS: You’re right. Touché.<br />
<b>PS: Have
you ever debunked something that came from the government, from the
pharmaceutical industry or the establishment – I’ll tell you why I am
asking this. For example, you talk a lot about Islam, and how scary
fundamentalism is, and I agree with you. In fact, one good example of
religious fundamentalism is Israel. That is a whole country based on the
idea that they have been chosen by God. I never heard you say anything
about it. Why do you never talk about it?</b><br />
MS: Well, because I don’t talk about politics that much.<br />
<b>PS: That’s religion.</b><br />
MS: Well, so. No, that’s really politics. I don’t address Israel in particular because I support Israel. I mean<br />
<b>PS: Wow.</b><br />
MS: I think it’s good to have a western democracy in the middle of that… area.<br />
<b>PS: Oh, because it spreads democracy?</b><br />
MS: Yes, it spreads democracy.<br />
<b>PS: Oh yeah, right, I can see it spreading right now, democracy is bursting at the seams.</b><br />
MS: Well, it’s not spreading so well.<br />
<b>PS: How would it spread? You mean to other Arab countries?</b><br />
MS: The Arab Spring was a good start but then it kinda fizzled.<br />
<b>PS:
Wait, just a second. Israel is in fact the justification for most of
the dictatorships in the Middle East. Those dictators can only be
dictators and impose state of emergency because their countries are
technically at war with Israel.</b><br />
MS: Hum. Ok, I didn’t
know that. So the very existence of Israel leads to certain kinds of
government. But that’s not a reason to eradicate them. Ok, so two
different issues. I’m totally sceptical of the Jewish claim of the god
of Abraham and all those stories, I don’t think there was a Moses,
there’s no divine basis for Israel existing<br />
<b>PS: You don’t think Moses existed?</b><br />
MS: No, I don’t. I’m just going by what Biblical scholars and archaeologists tell me, things I read.<br />
<b>PS: Jesus?</b><br />
MS:
I think he probably existed. But that is a different question. Yes, I’m
totally sceptical of the claims the Jews make about the world. But
still, everybody has a right to exist. I would support a two-state
solution, a two-state solution is the only solution but Israel violates
that as much as Palestinians do.<br />
<b>PS: I won’t get into that.</b><br />
MS: Well, it’s not an area I follow really closely.<br />
<b>PS: So you see it more as a political problem, rather than religious.</b><br />
MS:
Yes, right. I mean, if you took religion away obviously they couldn’t
make divine claims to the land, so that would be a good start but I
don’t think that is gonna happen. So in the meantime, the political
solution is like a two-state solution, and yes the United States should
support them because, well, we should.<br />
[…]<br />
MS: Back to your
question, we can pick and choose our battles and that’s just not one of
mine. I mean, just on the side, as a person, politically, yes, I think
we should support Israel. And I believe in a two-state solution,
Palestine should exist, ok. But at Skeptic, we don’t deal with any of
that. Yes, we deal with religious claims, like that, there was no Moses,
whatever<br />
<b>PS: Has the Skeptic Magazine published articles on Moses?</b><br />
MS: Yes.<br />
<b>PS:
You seem to criticise people – no, you do criticise people who say they
are “spiritual but not religious.” Why is that? What’s your problem
with spirituality and why do you need to have a definition of it?</b><br />
MS: I sometimes am spiritual.<br />
<b>PS: In what way?</b><br />
MS:
Well, because people insist that if you’re not… there’s a sense that if
you’re not, there’s something wrong with you, you’re like Mr Spock, you
don’t have any feelings or any emotions. That’s bullshit. I just think
that’s a fuzzy word that people misuse, they don’t really know what they
mean. When people say they are spiritual but not religious, I say “what
do you mean by spiritual?” And I typically get an answer like this,
“Oh, well, you know, it’s kinda, you know, it’s like a feeling.” Ok.
Whatever. But what I mean is just sort of the awe and wonder at the
cosmos and the world and deep time and deep space…<br />
<b>PS: The sense of wonder?</b><br />
MS: Yes, sense of wonder, that’s it.<br />
<b>PS: The sense of not knowing?</b><br />
MS: And science offers that in spades compared to religion.<br />
<b>PS: Absolutely.</b><br />
MS:
I mean, if you wanna feel… I mean, one of my favourite things to do is
going to observatories; I’ve visited observatories around the world. To
me they are much more spectacular than cathedrals, and I like
cathedrals. I was just in the big Catholic cathedral in Madrid, and I
was in another one in Copenhagen, another one in Oxford. They are
everywhere. And they are spectacular but they are minuscule compared to
the big dome of an observatory that gives us an eye on the cosmos, that
makes us feel small compared to what religion can do. That would be my
religion.<br />
<b>PS: Ok, morality. This is a subject that
fascinates and scares me a little. What do you think of this statement,
which is mine: If the world is as unjust as it is with so many people
believing that after they die there will be a heaven or hell, a reward
or a punishment, or, as your experiment proved how people have the
impression they are being watched by a supreme being, what do you think
would be of the world if this whole sense of an invisible watcher was
gone?</b><br />
MS: That’s a good question. But we’re not talking
about replacing god with nothing – we are replacing our religious-based
morality with a secular-based morality.<br />
<b>PS: Government?</b><br />
MS:
Well, government, yes, of course, we need to have rules to get along,
but of course we want people to also be self-governing, so what we’ve
been witnessing in the last, say, 200 years is a shift in morality from,
sort of religious-based to people having values in and of themselves.
This is Kant’s idea from the Enlightenment, and that people should be
good for goodness sake. And that as a society we need take care of one
another, that people should be treated equally under the law, civil
liberties, civil rights, all these things did not exist before 200 years
ago, and now they do. And so people have inculcated into their brains
that you just don’t treat blacks this way, like they used to; you don’t
treat women like this anymore. And gays and atheists were the last of
these repressed minorities, so to speak. How does that happen?<br />
<b>PS: The sense of right and wrong?</b><br />
MS:
No, not just right and wrong but, ok, yes, in a deeper sense, I guess,
but how we should treat other people and interact with them, who counts
as a member of our ‘in’ group. It used to be just this tiny sphere of
who counts as member of our moral community, that used to be pretty
small. That expanding circle is getting huge now, where we count all
women now – except for Muslim countries – and all blacks, all Jews. And
eventually I think it will expand to include all primates, and marine
mammals, that those are conscious creatures that should be treated with
respect and dignity and – they will not get voting rights or something
like that, but the idea that they should not be harmed, that sort of
thing. So, I’m optimistic because the trend lines are very positive –
this is my next book, the Moral Arc in Science. Martin Luther King said,
“The arc in the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
[…] So you have to have rules that people respect, and the rule of law
is necessary for a country to be prosperous, for people not to pluck the
flower [in a public park that belongs to everyone and does not belong
to one person in particular. Shermer was referring to my previous point
on game theory, not transcribed here because I was the one doing the
talking, blabbermouth!]. So the argument that without religion such
thing won’t happen is not true, it’s already happening. Slavery was not
really abolished because of religions, it was abolished politically. And
Christians make it like… Dinesh [D’Souza] makes a big deal of Samuel
Wilberforce, the Christian abolitionist. Yes, of course, he was
Christian. But who were the abolitionists riding against? So believers
like to make a big deal about the fact that it was a Christian who led
that movement. And there were Christians in the American abolitionist
movement. But who were they railing against? Their fellow Christians.
There were more Christians who believed slavery was good and decent and
just… and you can read their sermons and their speeches and
justifications why slavery was a good thing for blacks.<br />
<b>PS: Have you ever read the Bible?</b><br />
MS: Yes, I have.<br />
<b>PS: The whole thing?</b><br />
MS: Yes.<br />
<b>PS: So why don’t you use it against itself?</b><br />
MS: I do sometimes.<br />
<b>PS: Could you, for example, ask Dinesh tomorrow what he thinks of Noah being buggered by his own son?</b><br />
MS: [laughter] We are not debating that tomorrow night. But I have used stuff like that before.<br />
<b>PS: Like what?</b><br />
MS:
Well, like most of the commandments in Deuteronomy, like death penalty
for disobedient children, death penalty for adulterous women but not
guys – of course, this was written by men – and I even make a joke,
death penalty for adultery, there goes half a Congress.<br />
<b>PS: What is their answer to that?</b><br />
MS: They say that’s the Old Testament, not the New Testament.<br />
<b>PS:
Well, then let me tell you something I wrote about. The New Testament
tells, I think it’s in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he says that
women should cover their heads. The Koran doesn’t, actually. In fact, if
you analyse the scriptures alone, the Koran is more egalitarian than
the Bible.</b><br />
MS: I’ve heard that. When people say ‘oh,
that’s the Old Testament, we believe in the New Testament.’ I point out
that Jesus says you’re supposed to leave your family and give up your
belongings and follow me. And by the way, when did Jesus become a
conservative? I mean, Jesus says you can’t get into heaven if you are
rich, right, and that you’re supposed to turn the other cheek. When did
Jesus become a militant, a war-monger? He is the opposite of that, so I
don’t know how conservatives embrace Jesus.<br />
<b>PS: I quite like Jesus expelling the vendors from the temple.</b><br />
[…]<br />
<b>PS:
I wanted to know if you’ve heard of the refuseniks. Because I heard Sam
Harris speak – and I’m not confusing you with Sam Harris but I think
you guys are similar in that you both seem to say that “oh, Christians
don’t bomb anything, Jews don’t go about exploding stuff.” Well, not if
you count Israel. In Israel they massacre whole villages, and they are
Jews, and almost every Jew is a soldier. So how is that so different
from… Perhaps it’s even worse, because that is…</b><br />
MS: State-sanctioned?<br />
<b>PS: Exactly, state-sanctioned.</b><br />
MS: Well I guess that’s the difference, it’s state-sanctioned, instead of religion-sanctioned.<br />
<b>PS: But it’s based on religion.</b><br />
MS:
Well, is it? Or is it more political? Is it more self-defence, and
political, or territorial? I mean, religion may be behind it, but is it
really the true motive?<br />
<b>PS: I understand what you mean,
and I understand that a fundamentalist Muslim who kills an infidel may
think he is doing a favour to God. But what if I think that I’ve been
chosen by God… Isn’t the belief that one has been chosen by God as his
chosen people a good predictor of enormous evil?</b><br />
MS: Yes, certainly, of course, I agree.<br />
<b>PS:
Peter Ustinov, apparently, said “Terrorism is the war of the poor, and
war is the terrorism of the rich.” My point is, it’s even worse that
it’s sanctioned by the state.</b><br />
[I will refrain from transcribing this bit because it is a long discussion on history, interpretation and epistemology]<br />
MS: You ask me interesting questions that people have never asked.<br />
<b>PS:
So, the meaning of life. You dedicated one of your books to your
daughter saying “the mantle now is yours.” So, is that how you see your,
ahn, permanence? Do you believe that, in a world that is secular and
that has no soul or life after death, having kids is your…</b><br />
MS:
Yes, for sure, that’s it, my work and my child. I doubt that much of
what I do will make a difference 500 years from now, but, you never
know. All of us make a tiny little bit of difference and push the moral
arc further and further towards justice, if I can help a little bit, you
can help a little bit… I mean, I didn’t have a child for that purpose,
it’s just an accident, most of them are, it just happened. But once
that’s there, ok, that’s my legacy. But I didn’t think about it, it’s
like evolution just took over my brain and I am just crazy about it and I
just want her to carry on.<br />
<b>PS: So you hope she will have kids?</b><br />
MS:
It doesn’t matter. The only reason I want her to have kids is for her
to know how great it is to have kids. It’s great. It’s a really
rewarding experience. I would have never imagined, I didn’t care, I
didn’t want kids, but then once I had Devin it’s like, wow, this is
fantastic. But on the other hand I got lucky because she is a good kid.
[…] So back to your previous point about, if there is no god, I mean the
larger point you made, if there is no god are you free of any kind of
moral restraints? No, I’m not free of restraints, I have all kinds of
obligations, and promises, and friendships, and people I love and that I
feel obligated to. The basis of morality is in human relationships, a
person on an island by themselves, there’s no morality there, they’re
just by themselves, it’s only how you interact with other people, you
don’t need god for that, and if you’re not sure if you should violate a
moral norm, just ask the person you’re thinking about sticking it to,
how they feel about it. They will tell you, right? So you know, you
don’t even need to ask, you know how someone will feel about something
before you do it, that’s the basis of morality.<br />
<b>PS: Do you think you have the obligation to help people that you never met?</b><br />
MS: Just a second. [pause] Say again?<br />
<b>PS:
Do you think you have a moral duty to help people less privileged, for
example, people you have nothing to do with and never met?</b><br />
MS:
On the sliding scale as you expand out from yourself and your immediate
family, friends, yes, I think we do have the moral obligation to help
those who are less privileged. But I don’t think we have the right to
make you do. In other words, I don’t feel right that I should take your
money and give it to someone that I think needs it. You should be free
to do that, you do it. So this is why I am against government… I don’t
like government hand-outs<br />
<b>PS: Do you do it?</b><br />
MS:
Yeah, yeah, I adopted, er, I did a, I have an adopted-child program
through, you know, one of those adopt-a-child things, it’s a little
girl, actually she is, like, almost done now, I think she is almost out
of high-school, in Europe, in Romania.<br />
<b>PS: Oh.</b><br />
MS: Yeah. [silence] So ah, I mean, it’s not a lot, it’s 30 bucks a month maybe for ten years now. Yeah, I feel good about that.<br />
<b>PS: That’s it? That’s all?</b><br />
MS: Well, what do you mean, I don’t know, like what else?<br />
<b>PS: I don’t know.</b><br />
[silence]<br />
<b>PS: Do you feel that religious people are more charitable than non-religious people?</b><br />
MS: Yes. Not only do I see it, but the data shows that.<br />
<b>PS: Why?</b><br />
MS:
Well, because religions are good at rallying the troops to get people
to do the right thing, that’s one of the good things that religions do.
My atheist friends don’t like to acknowledge but it’s true, they do. Now
it’s not that secular people can’t do it. They can and they do, but
religions are just more organised about it. In fact one of the reasons
why I think America is more religious than European nations is because
European nations’ governments do what religions do here, take care of
the poor, help the people in need. Like in Katrina, in New Orleans, way
before Bush and his cronies got there with FEMA to help out, the
churches were there instantly, they were there like the next day. A
friend of mine works in this business so she was full time on this and
they got mass donations instantly, millions of dollars, and they
converted that immediately into food and water, they just drive right
there, “go!”, whereas the government, well, it takes forever for them to
do anything. So religion in a way is privatised social security,
privatised welfare. In that sense science will never replace religion,
because religion does something that science doesn’t even do, it’s not
tasked to do that. Mormons are spectacularly good at this, but they
mostly take care of themselves.<br />
<b>PS: You said that computers are five years away from being more intelligent than humans and forever will be. Can you explain?</b><br />
MS: That’s my joke. Obviously that’s not true, we will get there, the curve shows that we will get there.<br />
<b>PS: That <i>computers</i> will get there.</b><br />
MS: Yes, eventually. But the proof is in the pudding, let’s go ahead and do it.<br />
<b>PS: Well, and when they do? Can you lucubrate on that scenario?</b><br />
MS:
First and foremost, I think computers are just too used to help us lead
better lives, to solve problems. And to that extent it’s great. I
really, I’m optimistic as I usually am. I don’t think computer are gonna
take over the world, I don’t think computers are gonna decide humans
are obsolete and be done with us, or anything like that. […] We don’t
know how (computers) are going to change the world. I think it will
mostly change the world for good. So imagine an entirely wireless world
and every single person on the planet has a laptop. And we can
communicate instantly. Already, as Kurzweil points out, a teenager in
Kenya has access to more knowledge than the president of the United
States did 15 years ago. Just the internet, Google, Wikipedia and boom,
you have...<br />
<b>PS: You said ‘access’ to knowledge. To <i>process</i> that knowledge is something else.</b><br />
MS:
So imagine when a billion minds come online in Africa, and we get them
wealthy enough, and educated enough, and online – how fast the world
will change for the good – [all those people] solving problems, just
being involved. I’m optimistic about that, I think that’s coming. I mean
the one-hundred dollar laptop kinda fizzled out, but, you know, the
idea is there. It will happen. I mean, nobody was online 25 years ago.
Now 3 billion or 4 billion online, that’s just phenomenal.<br />
<b>PS: Damn you’re such a positive man. What’s your star sign?</b><br />
[Laughter]</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-697820310844257282014-01-06T15:15:00.000+02:002014-01-06T15:17:06.820+02:00Terror Also Wears Suit and Tie <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/>
<w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
<w:Word11KerningPairs/>
<w:CachedColBalance/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB">“My image reflects in the enemy’s eyes and his image reflects in mine the same time.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Mos Def </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">It stands to reason that doctors benefit from disease, private
prisons from criminality, car mechanics from engine malfunction and journalists
from bad news. Thus I wasn’t surprised by the conspicuous absence of any
serious discussion on the causes of terrorism at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">13th World Summit on Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya</i>. Should
terrorism choose to disappoint everyone and vanish, most of those
self-proclaimed experts would be out of a job. To expect them to provide
solutions would be like trusting the CEO of Los Pollos Hermanos to be against
the War on Drugs™. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">But notwithstanding my cynicism, I can be quite an optimist depending
on the time of the month. So I decided to go and see it for myself. I harboured
the secret hope to dispel my belief that counter-terrorism is an eternally
reflecting mirror keeping terrorism replicating Escher-like. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t want to pull that academic trick of
using words and abstraction to make tangible reality ungraspable and endlessly
up for discussion. I don’t mean to say terrorism is imaginary – no, it is
sometimes real and should be fought. But while it’s clear that terror and its
counterpart wouldn’t live without each other, it is less clear which one is the
chicken and which is the egg. In my quest for the origin of that particular
poultry, I figured I should endure the terror fest and look at it with
positive, constructive eyes. And I tried. I swear I did. But reality kept
intruding. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The first shocking thing about that conference was my being accepted
to attend it less than two hours after I sent a very perfunctory email
requesting to participate. This was a summit that boasted the presence of two
ex-heads of Mossad, a few ex-chiefs of Shin Bet and a multitude of army
officials and private contractors, mostly from the USA and Israel. If you threw
a proper nail-bomb during coffee-break probably half of the Middle East
problems would be solved. Still, the only reference I gave in my request was
the name of a Brazilian newspaper for which sometimes I write, without any
evidence to my claim, not even a link or a published article. Of course they
could have just googled me, but in that case they’d have found out that I am
the author of a novel whose main character <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>advocates the assassination of corrupt
politicians and businessmen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">In Eudemonia, the main character – a female journalist, no less –
defends the morality of assassination and dabbles in the idea of whacking the
VP of the Pale House, Duck Chainy ,and the mercenary Eric Pauper. She thinks
that killing one of her interviewees is her way “of helping straighten the
world.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eudemonia-ebook/dp/B006E5JI0S">http://www.amazon.com/Eudemonia-ebook/dp/B006E5JI0S</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">But if my acceptance was surprising, the real shocker was yet to
come. At what is known as one of the most prominent counter-terrorism
conferences in the world, the security guards surrounding the Israel Navy
Defense building let everyone in without any type of check. Nada. Then they
thought better of it and asked everyone out, X-raying people’s bags on their
way in while politely asking every visitor if they were “carrying a gun for
self-defence.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I found that quite amusing – we hadn’t even gotten inside the
building and we were already adopting their terminology. In the universe of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">counter-terrorism</i>, a gun could only be
used as a reaction, a counter-action as it were. But even that was only on day
one. After you hadn’t tried to self-defend or blow up the place on the first
day of the conference, you were good to go on the next ones – not a single time
again did they check me or my bag. And then I asked myself, quite rhetorically:
“But what about terrorism?” Shouldn’t a conference in Herzliya, with all those
big names attending it, be the ultimate terrorist dream? Isn’t such laxity
incredibly reckless for people who believe the next suicide bomber is just
waiting around the corner? You could almost be forgiven for thinking those
counter-terrorists don’t actually believe terrorism exists. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Well, yes, we know terrorism exists. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">“Terrorism exists and the line outside is just one of its
consequences,” said one of the first speakers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Que? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I was stumped. The thing would have sounded like an orchestra, if
the instruments weren’t so poorly tuned. If that X-ray line was an evidence of
terrorism, the case for it seemed extremely weak. But wait. There was, indeed,
a much bigger case for it, and his name was Bashar al-Assad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Syrian president was the boogieman du jour, at least at the
beginning of the conference. Assad was compared to Hitler by more than three
speakers on the first day alone. Some went further and expanded the metaphor,
comparing the American “hesitancy” in attacking Syria with the US’s reluctance
in joining the Allies against Germany. This went on and on, Nazi Germany being
the easiest-to-grasp allegory, the simile of choice. Even Qanta Ahmad, a doctor
whose specialty is in the field of sleep disorders, had something to say
against Bashar al-Assad. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Qanta, who as a woman and a Muslim helped fill two quotas with one
plane ticket, complained about Barack Obama’s “reluctance” in attacking Syria.
For her, the fact that Syria has not been invaded proves “how jaded we are
against tyranny.” Ahmad, perhaps unsatisfied with her diminutive role of movie
extra, went beyond her script and praised Israel’s religious tolerance, saying
she didn’t see anything that “prevented the flourishing of the Muslim faith” in
the country. Who cares about truth at a conference on counter-terrorism? As it
turns out, very few people. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">More speakers yet joined in bashing Assad, and then another one came
on stage and acted like the voice of reason: “Syria is not Nazi Germany.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Whoa. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">That platitude came as a blow at that point. Fellow lecturer Uzi
Arad agreed: “Bashar is not Hitler.” Ok, we were getting somewhere, I thought.
Yes, that’s how bad the thing was. But it was still too early for Logic to
start celebrating. After a few words remembering the holocaust, the next Voice
of Reason proposed another boogieman: Iran. The race now was tight between
those two, making it impossible to guess who would win this year’s title of
Hitler. It was not an easy contest, even with the replacement of hawkish
Ahmadinejad by the moderate Hassan Rouhani. No, that friendly outreach recently
performed by Rouhani was not going to discourage the likes of Yuval Steinitz.
The Likud member, who holds a three-title position in the Israeli cabinet,
managed the incredible feat of transforming a conciliatory gesture into an act
of aggression. For him, Rouhani’s favourable words to Israel were “an attack of
niceties to win public opinion, and he will laugh all the way to the bomb.” He
said he didn’t trust Iran or Rouhani. “We must judge Iran by deeds, not words.”
Steinitz then mentioned the words Beetles, and the group of words “give peace a
chance.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Not that anyone cared, but Amos Gilad came right after and said the
very opposite – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">“I believe in everything Iran says.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Oops. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Gilad was obviously still stuck in the mistranslated “wipe Israel
off the map.” But there was no need to worry – though his premise was the
opposite of Steinitz’s, the conclusion remained the same: The world should wipe
Iran off the map. This is what is most conspicuous at such gatherings: experts
usually come up with the conclusions first, and gather the premises that
(pre)corroborate their decisions later. Facts are mostly irrelevant. They are
just picked, shuffled and presented essentially for public consumption, a
digestible explanation for a motive too ulterior to disclose. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Meanwhile, in a galaxy not far away, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall St. Journal</i> hinted at real purpose reporting that “in response
to a possible attack against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Raytheon stock
prices have skyrocketed, reaching a 52-week high.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Yes, folks: As it turns out, many of those experts lecturing us on
security and defense work for insecurity and attack firms, from military
manufacturers to defense contractors and consulting LLCs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">By and large, I abhor generalisations, including this very one. When
people criticise the police, for example, as if they were all thugs, I cringe.
There are good and bad policemen, and putting them all in the same basket is
less a disservice to the good apples as it is a service to the bad ones. But when
it comes to the misnamed defense industry, I’m left like Diogenes fumbling about
with my lamp in search of an honest man. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">But there was, to be fair, at least one dissenting voice at the
conference. The one I heard speaking against an attack on Syria (and I have not
heard all the speakers nor could I attend all the simultaneous panels) was
Tarek Fatah, author of the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Jew
Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism</i>. Fatah
had the most bombastic, counter-current line in the conference: “If Syria is
invaded, it will become the next Afghanistan, and Lebanon will follow.” He also
tried to show that a focus on Iran’s nuclear weapons was a bit incongruent
when, “just one kilometre east of Iran, Pakistan has 200 nuclear missiles.”
Those 200 deterring factors may explain, of course, the reason why no one
threatens Pakistan, but the cold rationality of Mutually Assured Destruction
was never discussed at the conference. Not once. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Another topic that was never broached was potential motivations for
terrorism. According to the very experts attending the conference, terrorism
needs two main things to materialise: motivation and operational capability.
You’d think it would be a huge neglect to ignore 50 per cent of that equation.
But ignore they did. While capability was extensively debated, motivation was
nowhere to be seen. Throughout the panels I attended, there was absolutely no
talk about the situations that spur terrorism and give it (or are purported to
give) its moral ground. Other than the facile scarecrows of anti-Semitism and
the Koran, little or nothing else was explored – which is weird, if you take
into consideration the studies conducted by Robert Pape, for example. Pape, a
terrorist specialist who compiled every known suicide attack from 1980 to 2003,
concluded that there is "little connection between suicide terrorism and
Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions.” What suicide
attacks have in common, he says “is a specific secular and strategic goal: to
compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the
terrorists consider to be their homeland.” To illustrate a point that no one at
the conference tried to make, in the suicide attacks in Lebanon against French,
Israeli and American targets between ‘82 and ‘86, only eight of the 41
perpetrators were Islamic fundamentalists. One of the attacks was in fact
carried out by a girl who was Christian and Marxist. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">It soon became clear to anyone with a few active neurons that the
whole Herzliya conference was a gigantic circle jerk with men helping each
other’s clandestine motives, the legitimate destruction of terrorism not one
among them. Even Boaz Ganor, the organiser who appeared more sober than most
speakers, looked rather lonely defending the theory that attacks on military
targets cannot be considered terrorism. Later on, Boaz’s daughter came on stage
to sing Paul Simon’s Sound of Silence, giving me the chance to finally applaud
someone. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">“Hello darkness, my old friend,” she sang. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">One of darkness’s closest friends decided to make an appearance
later on. Richard Kemp, former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan,
is described on the Military Speakers website as being “in great demand as a
motivational, keynote and after-dinner speaker, covering topics including
leadership, decision-making, crisis management, terrorism, intelligence,
conflict and the challenges facing the Middle East.” Looking very much the
(counter) part, Kemp was well-dressed, perfumed, clean-shaven. And he focused
on the challenges faced by Israel, more specifically the Qassam attacks from
Hamas. Referring to them as “lethal rockets,” Kemp said thousands of them were
sent into Israeli territory. Israel’s reaction, he said, was writing “more than
20 letters to Ban Ki Moon.” That’s cute. And Kemp was right – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lethal</i> rockets were launched. But he
chose to leave the precise lethality out of his speech. According to the
numbers compiled by B’Tselem, “from June 2004 to April 2013, 24 Israeli
civilians and one foreign national were killed in Israel by Palestinian rocket
and mortar fire.” Just for context, between January 2009 and July 2013, 519
Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The best friends Darkness could have asked for. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Next (sometime when
boredom hits): How I was approached by the Mossad, and how an ex-Navy official,
one of the few men with a real radar for danger, rushed out of the conference
room as soon as he saw me going to the toilet and leaving my backpack behind. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #741b47;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">The first part of this series was published on +972 Magazine:</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://972mag.com/109-definitions-of-terrorism/79037/"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">http://972mag.com/109-definitions-of-terrorism/79037/</span></span></span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-74996804514819187582013-09-20T16:17:00.000+03:002013-09-20T16:18:04.759+03:00My interview with Hassan Nasrallah, as published in Folha de S.Paulo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is my interview with Hassan Nasrallah, as published in Folha de S.Paulo (or "the main parts of the interview", as Folha says).<br />
<br />
Note from the Author: I will refrain from posting here the two accompanying articles, because they would have to carry a disclaimer I have no time to make right now. As a quick summary: both pieces written by me were heavily edited by Folha, prompting me to threaten a lawsuit. Folha changed several of my words because, according to the editor on an email to me, an order "came from above". One of those changes deserves a special mention: the '82 Israeli invasion of Lebanon became an "intervention." Like the Ministry of Truth in Oceania, Folha tried to change the present by defrauding the past, pretending the invasion had never happened. After several emails among me, the owner of the newspaper (Frias), its ombudsman (Ajzenberg) and my direct editor (Malbergier), I was finally allowed a mere 800 characters to write a correction on the page 3 of the newspaper. Among other things, I taught Folha that if they bothered reading Israeli newspapers, they would know that the very Jerusalem Post calls the invasion an invasion. But if reading newspapers wasn't a thing done by Folha's journalist, they could then just check the Britannica Encyclopedia. Yet should none of that suffice to convince them, they could have just read Sharon's biography - there, too, the very invader refers to the invasion as an invasion. Yeah, folks, you have no idea how captured the Brazilian media is. No idea. <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span class="data">22/06/2003 - 09h06 </span></b></span>
<br />
<h1>
Plano dos EUA pode levar à guerra civil palestina, diz
Hizbollah </h1>
<b>PAULA SCHMITT</b><br />
free-lance para
a <b>Folha de S.Paulo</b>, em Beirute<br />
<br />
Leia a seguir os principais trechos
da entrevista que o secretário-geral do Hizbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, concedeu à
<b>Folha</b> em Beirute, no último dia 10. (PS)<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - O que o sr.
acha do plano que foi proposto pelos EUA para a retomada do processo de paz
israelo-palestino?<br />Hassan Nasrallah</b> - Acreditamos que a intenção do plano
seja liquidar a Intifada palestina [revolta popular contra a ocupação
israelense] e, como os grupos palestinos, temos nossas reservas.<br />
A proposta
exige que o governo palestino e a resistência se desarmem, protegendo a ocupação
israelense, os assentamentos e os soldados israelenses, e isso pode levar a uma
guerra civil na Palestina.<br />
Os palestinos e israelenses vão se sentar à mesa
de negociação e vão discutir questões que Sharon [o premiê israelense] já
declarou serem inegociáveis, como o direito de retorno dos refugiados
palestinos, o fim definitivo dos assentamentos e a insistência de considerar
Jerusalém como capital unicamente de Israel. Portanto, mesmo que a proposta dos
EUA proponha um caminho para a negociação, ela vem com impedimentos
decisivos.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - Então o sr. concorda com a posição do Hamas
[grupo terrorista palestino] de não aceitar discutir o plano?<br />Nasrallah</b> -
Nós apoiamos o diálogo tanto entre os grupos palestinos como entre os grupos
palestinos e a Autoridade Nacional Palestina. É claro que a recente posição do
Hamas foi uma reação direta ao discurso de Abu Mazen [premiê palestino] em Ácaba
[cidade jordaniana onde os premiês israelense e palestino se reuniram, com a
presença do presidente George W. Bush, e aceitaram retomar o processo de paz
tendo como base o plano proposto pelos EUA]. Mazen se encontrou com o Hamas
antes de ir a Ácaba, criou toda uma expectativa positiva sobre a sua posição em
relação ao plano dos EUA, mas depois o discurso ficou diferente. Isso fez com
que o Hamas se sentisse como se tivesse sido esfaqueado pelas costas,
insultado.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - Existe alguma chance de o Hizbollah algum dia
aceitar o Estado de Israel?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Antes de 1948 não havia nenhum
Estado com esse nome. Havia a Palestina e o povo da Palestina, que incluía
cristãos, muçulmanos e judeus. Eles coexistiram por centenas de anos em paz. Daí
veio o movimento sionista e organizou grupos terroristas do mundo inteiro. Eles
começaram a agir intimidando os palestinos e os expulsando da sua própria terra.
Portanto, nós consideramos tal Estado ilegítimo, ilegal. Ele foi estabelecido
usurpando a terra de outros.<br />
Mas isso pertence ao passado. O que nós
esperamos, no futuro, é a solução do problema. Defendemos a existência de um só
país, que vá do mar Mediterrâneo até o rio Jordão, e que inclua muçulmanos,
cristãos e judeus. Que seja um Estado democrático, em que a maioria da população
possa escolher o tipo de governo que desejar, seja ele religioso ou secular, mas
democrático.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - O Hizbollah aceitaria se desarmar em troca de
U$ 500 milhões, como foi sugerido pelo deputado americano de origem libanesa
Darrel Issa?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Nós vemos essa proposta como um insulto. A
resistência, as armas da resistência e a força de vontade da resistência não
podem ser medidas nem substituídos com dinheiro. A resistência é uma reação à
invasão do Líbano e às suas repercussões: a ocupação, os prisioneiros, a
destruição da infra-estrutura, centenas de milhares de mártires e feridos,
centenas de milhares de refugiados. Qualquer solução que se queira dar à
resistência tem de envolver a remoção das razões que levaram a isso, não há
solução através de dinheiro. Existem muitas famílias que ofereceram seus filhos
como mártires na resistência. Eu sou um deles. Dá para eu aceitar vender meu
filho martirizado ao sr. Darrel Issa por US$ 500 milhões?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha -
O sr. disse, em um de seus discursos, que, no Líbano, "nós temos orgulho da
unidade nacional entre as diferentes confissões". De fato, estão todos unidos
contra o Estado de Israel. Mas e se a população do Líbano decidir que está
satisfeita com um possível acordo de paz entre palestinos e Israel, e o Líbano
decidir assinar um tratado de paz também?<br />Nasrallah</b> - O que importa é que
os palestinos aceitem o acordo de paz, não os libaneses. Qualquer solução tem de
ter o apoio dos palestinos, mas até agora esse apoio não existe. Não há um só
palestino que aceite um acordo que não inclua o direito de retorno à sua própria
terra, ou que abra mão da cidade de Jerusalém. De qualquer maneira, o que está
sendo proposto agora, tanto para os palestinos como para os libaneses ou sírios,
não satisfaz à maioria das populações de nenhum desses
países.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - Agora, com relação a algo que envolve o Brasil
diretamente, o Hizbollah recebe doações da Tríplice Fronteira [região entre
Brasil, Argentina e Paraguai onde há uma importante comunidade
islâmica]?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Os libaneses que moram nessa área emigraram por
causa das dificuldades econômicas no Líbano e por causa da guerra. Mal conseguem
alimentar toda a família que têm no Líbano. Não existe doação nenhuma vinda
dessa área.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - A sua luta é contra a injustiça ou contra os
"infiéis"? Por que o Hizbollah não combate a opressão em países árabes, como a
que existia contra os xiitas no Iraque de Saddam Hussein?<br />Nasrallah</b> - O
Hizbollah se estabeleceu no Líbano por causa da invasão israelense. Como você
sabe, eles ocuparam uma grande parte do território libanês, entraram na capital,
Beirute, mataram dezenas de milhares de pessoas, cometeram genocídio [Israel
nega ter cometido genocídio durante a invasão do Líbano em 1982], destruíram
várias cidades. No que diz respeito a lutar contra injustiças, existem vários
aspectos da injustiça no nosso país e na nossa região, mas a injustiça pode ser
combatida de maneiras diferentes. Às vezes, recorrer às armas para combater
certa injustiça é prejudicial. Nós temos os meios políticos, o meio popular, até
a mídia é um veículo para combater injustiça.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - Se Israel
deixar a área de Shebaa [região ocupada por Israel que, segundo a ONU, é síria,
mas, segundo o Hizbollah, é libanesa], o Hizbollah vai continuar lutando pelos
palestinos?<br />Nasrallah</b> - A razão da existência do Hizbollah é defensiva.
Desde a retirada de Israel em 2000, ainda existem algumas operações militares
nas fronteiras, e na área de Shebaa. Israel também mantém prisioneiros
libaneses, temos o problema dos 300 mil refugiados palestinos no Líbano,
sofremos violações diárias do território libanês, assim como bombardeio na
fronteira e a ameaça constante de guerra. Alguns meses atrás, o Líbano quis usar
uma parte da água do Wazzani, um rio pequeno que nasce no Líbano e vai para a
Palestina. É direito do Líbano usar uma parte daquela água, assegurado por
acordos internacionais, e o governo libanês tentou usar menos do que o que lhe
cabe. Sharon pessoalmente ameaçou com guerra. Então nós estamos num país que é
ameaçado e nós estamos na posição de defendê-lo. No que diz respeito à questão
da Palestina, é o povo palestino que luta para liberar a sua terra, como os
libaneses lutaram para liberar a sua. É claro que é dever de todos nós
apoiá-los, mas ninguém deveria lutar no lugar de ninguém.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha -
Alguns analistas acreditam que, com um eventual acordo entre Israel e Palestina,
o Hizbollah perderia a razão de ser.<br />Nasrallah</b> - Isso não é verdade. O
Hizbollah administra vários conselhos municipais e participa das áreas sociais,
educacionais e de saúde. O Hizbollah tem uma plataforma política no Líbano e é
atualmente o maior partido político do país.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - O Hizbollah é
a favor de uma república islâmica no Líbano?<br />Nasrallah</b> - É natural que
nós aspiremos, em teoria, a um Estado islâmico. Mas nós também acreditamos que
um Estado muçulmano não pode ser uma imposição. As pessoas precisam acreditar
nesse projeto. Veja por exemplo o caso do Irã. Foi o povo iraniano que derrubou
o regime do xá [Reza Pahlevi]. Não foi um golpe de Estado, foram dezenas de
milhões de iranianos. Depois, numa eleição livre, os iranianos elegeram um
conselho de especialistas, que redigiu a Constituição, adotada pelo Estado
islâmico e aprovada em referendo. Se o povo libanês desejar um Estado islâmico,
então eles terão. Mas isso nunca vai ser uma imposição.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha -
Então uma república islâmica no Líbano permitiria que os cristãos tivessem seus
próprios costumes, igrejas, regras sobre casamento, divórcio,
herança?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Em primeiro lugar, não existe clima no Líbano para
um Estado islâmico, mas eu posso falar sobre a experiência no Irã. Os cristãos
têm suas próprias igrejas, sua própria entidade social e política, praticam seus
ritos, até os judeus têm suas próprias cortes religiosas e membros no
Parlamento, mesmo sendo uma minoria pequena. Os direitos civis são iguais aos
dos muçulmanos.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - Quando o seu filho morreu lutando contra
Israel, a sua reação foi de uma resignação praticamente sobre-humana. Seu
sorriso chegou a virar notícia. Mas, na intimidade, como Hassan Nasrallah
reagiu? O sr. acredita que se deve ter prazer neste mundo, ou tudo que se espera
é a vida após a morte prometida no Alcorão? O sr. consegue pensar em coisas mais
temporais como a felicidade e o conforto?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Antes de o meu
filho ter sido martirizado em 1997 [o verbo "morrer" praticamente não existe
para se referir a muçulmanos que morrem lutando contra Israel], por 15 anos eu
vinha dando adeus a outros mártires. Com todos eles eu me senti como se eles
fossem meus filhos e irmãos. É claro que com Hadi tive um sentido de perda
diferente, porque ele é meu filho direto. Mas todos foram martirizados pela
causa em que acreditamos. Nós temos de nos satisfazer com a escolha de Deus. Eu
pessoalmente sinto a dor de perdê-los, posso até chorar em segredo, mas, no
campo de batalha, militar ou político, temos de ser fortes e
resolutos.<br />
Quanto à noção que você apresentou, o islã é uma religião para
esta vida e a próxima. O Alcorão prega aos fiéis que aproveitem o que Deus lhes
deu, as coisas boas, sem cair em pecado. O islã tem uma noção diferente do
cristianismo, até no que diz respeito ao clero. Nós não temos monges no islã,
reclusão. O homem [religioso] pode viver uma vida natural, casar, ter filhos,
comprar e vender, ser ativo na política. Mas a vida após a morte tem uma posição
especial no coração dos muçulmanos porque é eterna, enquanto esta vida é
temporal, limitada.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Folha - O sr. acredita que aqueles que seguem
dogmas religiosos, como rezar cinco vezes ao dia, estejam mais próximos de Deus
do que, por exemplo, pessoas que não acreditam nesses ritos, mas fazem o bem a
outras pessoas?<br />Nasrallah</b> - Tudo tem o seu próprio valor. Ajudar os
outros tem enorme valor, não há dúvida. E oração também tem um grande valor.
Deus nos pediu que fizéssemos os dois. Se praticarmos um sem praticar o outro,
estará faltando algo nas nossas vidas e nos nossos valores. Nós não acreditamos
que religião consiste apenas de rituais. Deus nos disse para venerá-Lo a fim de
que nos purificássemos, mas não porque Ele precise da nossa adoração.<br />
O
Alcorão diz que orações previnem que se cometam pecados, coisas ruins para si e
para os outros. Portanto, aquele que ora, mas agride os outros, rouba, deixa de
ajudar os necessitados quando pode fazê-lo, para essa pessoa a oração não tem
valor nenhum, porque a sua oração é só externa.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-2393226627389130942013-08-14T22:32:00.001+03:002013-08-16T15:09:00.460+03:00New Yorker's Ryan Lizza does PR, a.k.a., Read This Piece (of shisse)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">I bumped into the article below when I was searching for news on the reasons why Brazil has been a major target of NSA spying. I suspected - and I still do - that it has nothing to do with terrorism. The first reason for my suspicion is what could be called an <i>overwhelming </i>absence of terrorist acts in the country. The second reason is that Brazilian companies are an obvious threat to US largest corporations. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">But I didn't need search for long. Here was the New Yorker, with an article signed by a man I had never heard of, Ryan Lizza. His piece was entitled "What the NSA Wants in Brazil." He read my thoughts. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">And he answered them exactly as the NSA would have. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">This is, thus, one excellent example of how a New Yorker
reporter acted like a PR flack. There is one conclusion I take from this, or rather two: This guy is either extremely naive (retarded, if you prefer the medical term), or he is on the payroll of someone. There's no other way in which I can interpret this piece of crap. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">You may want to read the full article first:<br />http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/why-the-nsa-really-cares-about-brazil.html</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #31859c;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">My comments are in red.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #31859c;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">And yes, I am very aware this page design sucks, so do the colours. </span><br /> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">July 24,
2013</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What the N.S.A. Wants in
Brazil </span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Posted by
<i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/ryan_lizza/search?contributorName=Ryan%20Lizza" title="search site for content by Ryan Lizza"><span style="color: blue;">Ryan
Lizza</span></a></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #376092; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /><i></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><i>Well, the awfulness started early: Ryan
Lizza is not asking what the NSA wants in Brazil – he is telling you what they
want. And he should know – he asked them. </i></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Of course, the question is completely
pertinent: Why was Brazil the second major target of NSA surveillance in
January? But if the answer was ‘to fight terrorism’, we wouldn’t need Ryan
Lizza to tell us, would we? That’s the government’s job. That’s their version.
But, of course, some help from the New Yorker is always welcome. </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lizza starts by quoting an article by
Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian:</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“In the
last decade, people residing or in transit in Brazil, as well as companies
operating in the country, have become targets of espionage National Security
Agency of the United States[..]. There are no precise figures, but last January
Brazil was just behind the United States, which had 2.3 billion phone calls and
messages spied.…”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And then he starts an ‘analysis’ that is
so empty, so truly shallow yet so absurdly reliant on official sources (and
boasting about them) that it makes me wonder if any editor at the New Yorker
actually read it. </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Here is Lizza stating his legitimate
puzzlement. </span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“In a
way, the N.S.A.’s focus on Brazil seems puzzling. Why would the United States
care so much about communications traffic in a friendly South American country?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now guess what he does to “dig” for the
answer to that conundrum? </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Investigation, you say? Journalism? FOIA
requests? </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">No. Intrepid Lizza wants to have nice lunch
in Washington. What he chooses to do is go talk to the very men accused of
conducting illegal espionage. Journalistically speaking, this is like relying
on the wolf to understand what happened to Red Riding Hood. </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><span style="color: #31859c; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“But last
week, at the <a href="http://aspensecurityforum.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Aspen Security Conference</span></a>, General Keith
Alexander, the director of the N.S.A., made a little-noticed remark that helps
explain his agency’s interest in Brazil. <span style="color: red;">[<i>[Notice Lizza turning a
mundane remark into something falsely important. The technique is an old one:
announce an irrelevant phrase as “a little-noticed remark” and your pretentious
audience will make sure they noticed the remark AND its purported relevance.]</i>]
</span>During a question-and-answer session with an audience of journalists and
current and former government officials, a German reporter rose and asked
Alexander this: “Why are you focusing so much on gathering data also from
Brazil, since there’s not too much terrorism going on in Brazil as far as I
know?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alexander’s
answer was somewhat elliptical (emphasis mine): </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">You know,
the reality is we’re not collecting all the e-mails on the people in Brazil nor
listening to their phone numbers. Why would we do that? What somebody took was
a program that looks at <i>metadata around the world that you would use to find
terrorist activities that might transit</i> and leaped to the conclusion that,
aha, metadata—they must be listening to everybody’s phone; they must be reading
everybody’s e-mail. Our job is foreign intelligence. I’ll tell you, 99.9 and I
don’t know how many nines go out of all that, whether it’s in German or Brazil,
is of no interest to a foreign intelligence agency. What is of interest is <i>a
terrorist hopping through</i> or doing something like that.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[Yes, you just read that, allow me to
reconfirm. Lizza calls that most tiring of all repeated arguments a “little-noticed
remark”, trying to give it a false aura of secrecy when that’s the only thing
we’ve heard from the government since the NSA scandal surfaced. But now, behold
what Lizza wants you to believe is the General’s slip.]]</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alexander’s
answer doesn’t seem terribly revealing. But embedded in it was a major
admission, which is alluded to by the portions, “metadata around the world that
you would use to find terrorist activities that might transit” and “a terrorist
hopping through.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Admission?” Lizza, have you got a
dictionary? Admission has to be something truthful, and more than that, it must
have been given reluctantly. If one
is dying to say it, or is paying PR flaks or journalists to say it, then it’s
not called admission, it’s called spiel. </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Who needs Hill and Knowlton when they
have Ryan Lizza? </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Also, notice how he uses the
deemphasising “not terribly” while saying “surprising.” You confuse me, Lizza. </span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now, dear reader, I bet you will not imagine
what dangerous and inhospitable places Lizza goes dig up the truth: </span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“I asked
General Michael Hayden, the former director of both the C.I.A. and the N.S.A.,
what he found most interesting in Alexander’s remarks. “He committed two acts
of declassification,” Hayden told me, using a euphemism for when a senior
official reveals secret info by speaking in public. The first revelation Hayden
flagged was not terribly surprising: in an earlier portion of his remarks,
Alexander mentioned that the N.S.A. knows precisely what documents Edward
Snowden accessed. <span style="color: red;">[<i>[Another “revelation”, yet not “terribly surprising”. But - who
would have guessed: the “revelation” is, again, self-serving. The government,
via Alexander and Hayden (and via loyal Lizza), is ‘revealing’ that it knows
what documents Snowden accessed. And Lizza says that like it was something he ‘extracted’
from Hayden after drugging him with pentothal. Here is a primer for you. Liz:
there is no such thing as a “former” MI6, or a “former” CIA. If you think these
guys cease to work for their agencies and stop complying with their vow of secrecy,
well, I’ll have to say you are not terribly intelligent.]</i>]</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But
Alexander’s second act of declassification was much more interesting. <span style="color: red;"><i>[[“Second act of declassification”… I swear, I’m hiring this Lizza
when I open my own Hooey and Known</i>.]]</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Hayden
pointed to Alexander’s comments about Brazil, and his point about not being
interested in the communications of Brazilians. [<span style="color: red;">[<i>Got it, Brazilians? He is simply NOT INTERESTED.]]</i></span> He asked
me to think about the geography of Brazil, which bulges out eastward into the
Atlantic Ocean. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: red;">[[<i>this is getting too technical for you, Lizza.]</i></span><i><span style="color: red;">]</span> </i></span>I still didn’t understand. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: #31859c;"><i>[[Told ya.]] </i></span></span>“That’s where the transatlantic
cables come ashore,” he finally explained. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Indeed,
they do. <span style="color: red;"><i>[[WHAT? Wait a second,
Lizza. You mean to say that transatlantic cables actually need to cross the
Atlantic, and for that they need to “come ashore”? But please do not be distracted by my sarcasm. This absurdly obvious line is not a sign of Lizza's stupidity - it's much more likely a sign that this "reporter" has an agenda. How else to explain "indeed, they do"?]]</i></span><span style="color: #31859c;"> </span>According to
a <a href="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/subcabmap.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">map</span></a> of the network of
submarine cables that transmits our voices and our Internet data around the
world, Brazil is one of the most important telecommunication hubs on earth.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Here is
a more <a href="http://www.submarinecablemap.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">detailed, interactive version</span></a> of this map.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[Readers (yes, you two) do
check the map, and tell me if you see anything particularly extraordinary about
the cables. If you can tell a colour from another, and you can count, this map
proves absolutely nothing. But Lizza saw that bunch of coloured lines interconnecting
off Brazil’s bulge and got an epileptic attack.]</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">]</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Teleco,
which collects information about telecommunications in Brazil, has <a href="http://www.teleco.com.br/tutoriais/tutorialcsub/pagina_2.asp" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">additional details</span></a> on the
major submarine lines that run through the country. It reports that one of the
lines, Atlantis-2, which connects South America to Europe and Africa and was
created by twenty-five telecommunications companies, is part of a network that,
when complete, “will form the infrastructure of the global information
society.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: red;">[</span><span style="color: #31859c;"><span style="color: red;">[<i>That’s what I call journalism, folks. Any
doubts about what those cables are doing around that bulge? Just go to the PR firm
servicing the cable company and ask! But Lizza went even further, took some
time off and read the company’s brochure. Where else would he have gotten the incredibly
precise and technical explanation that those cables “will form the
infrastructure of the global information society.”]]</i></span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While the
idea that the N.S.A. is tapping transatlantic cables is hardly shocking—there
have been excellent recent stories on the subject in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/agreements-with-private-companies-protect-us-access-to-cables-data-for-surveillance/2013/07/06/aa5d017a-df77-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Washington <i>Post</i></span></a> and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/the-creepy-long-standing-practice-of-undersea-cable-tapping/277855/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">The Atlantic</span></i></a>—as far
as I’m aware, Alexander and Hayden’s remarks last week represent the highest
level of confirmation of the practice, and they help to explain Greenwald’s
report on the N.S.A.’s interest in Brazil.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[Folks, the paragraph above is a
masterpiece in doublethink. It deserves an award. Please observe: NSA tapping
cables is “hardly shocking”. By which we can conclude, of course, that Greenwald’s
story was probably less revealing that Lizza’s very article (hard to say who
wins between ‘hardly shocking’ and ‘not terribly surprising’). Greenwald’s
story is not a scoop, of course, and the proof is the fact that the government itself
confirmed the “hardly shocking” practice. Now the cherry on that pile of dunk: the
government’s confirmation of that practice “help[s] explain Greenwald’s report
on the NSA’s interest in Brazil.” Did you get the jamming of those two statements?
</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Because<i> the government confirmed they are tapping the cables, we know why they
are tapping cables in Brazil. Lizza knows it. It’s because there are too many
coloured lines on that map, and one of those could be used by a terrorist.]] </i></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They also
help shed light on an N.S.A. slide recently published by the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-prism-server-collection-facebook-google" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">Guardian</span></i></a>, which
appears to show that the umbrella program for this type of “upstream”
collection is called Fairview and/or Blarney.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[<i>Now Lizza is using a revelation by Greenwald
(a real one) to validate the government’s allegation that it is spying on Brazil
to fight terrorism. Basically, Lizza is trying to use Greenwald unrelated stuff
to confirm the government’s spiel. Mind you, this slide doesn’t show ANY indication
that the government is fighting terrorism instead of, say, engaging in corporate espionage.]]</i></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The map
on this slide is a less detailed version of the one above, but it indicates the
many submarine cables going to and from Brazil, and explains that the N.S.A.
uses these programs for the “collection of communications on fiber cables and
infrastructure as data flows past.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Finally,
Greenwald has reported that Snowden downloaded N.S.A. documents described as
the “crown jewels” of the agency. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[And now, the final gem in Lizza’s PR
for the government:]]</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There has
been much speculation about what these sensitive documents might be. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[What are they, Lizza? Please reveal it
to us!]]</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Three
former government officials told me <span style="color: red;">[[Yes, shameless Lizza again goes to the wolf]</span>] that they
likely contain details of our relationships with foreign intelligence agencies,
and, if so, that there might be explosive revelations about surveillance
practices undertaken by Western allies that violate privacy laws and other
statutes within those countries.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[[Bra-vo. That’s how you use the New
Yorker to tell those foreign leaders complaining about espionage that if they
but make a peep, heads will roll. And cute detail – heads could roll even if
the foreign country was not cooperating with the USA. It could roll because of
a penis on twitter, an occasional mistress, or even from fear of having a
secret revealed.]]</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Vanee’ M.
Vines, a spokesperson for the N.S.A., said, “We’re not going to elaborate on
remarks that Gen. Alexander made in Aspen,” and added that the agency also had
no comment on speculation about other documents possessed by Snowden.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #31859c; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">[<span style="color: red;">[Ooooh, this sounded so serious.
It almost made me believe that Alexander slipped. But it’s really quite intelligent,
if you are very stupid: Lizza goes to two ‘antagonists’ that are actually both official
sources, working for the same master. They play along well. Makes me wonder:
who assigned Lizza this piece?]</span>]</span></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-15150699837691382222013-07-21T11:53:00.004+03:002013-07-21T11:53:58.804+03:00Interview with Saad Hariri<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The following is an interview I conducted with Saad Hariri in 2006,
before the Israeli war in Lebanon. But it was never published. The
interview had been assigned to me by <i>O Estado de S.Paulo</i>, one of
the oldest and most respected newspapers in Brazil, a news outlet where I
once was the only student to write on the op-ed page and where I also
had a political column. But as it often happens in the Brazilian
coverage of the Middle East, during the editing process all my questions
related to Israel (and <i>only</i> the ones related to Israel) were
cut. Even though I was offered a good amount of money for the interview,
I refused to have it published, and told <i>O Estado de S.Paulo</i> to
stuff it. (On a more pleasant note, the editor got in touch with me when
he came to Beirut and we made peace during the war. Under the bombs, we
felt the moment was oddly appropriate.) It’s worth mentioning that <i>O Estado</i>
is far from being the worst when it comes to publishing anything
detrimental to Israel. Something even more sinister happened between me
and <i>Folha de S.Paulo</i>, the best-selling Brazilian newspaper where,
despite having once worked there and authored a political column, I
found myself the victim of the most shameless pro-Zionist editing – a
story I’ll tell once my mood is foul enough for me to reach for that
ten-foot pole.<br />
<br />
<b>Here is the interview</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
At only 36, Saad Rafiq Hariri is one of the richest men in the world –<br />
and now a somewhat compulsory political leader. Succeeding his father,<br />
Rafiq Hariri, the five-time Lebanese prime minister who was murdered<br />
in February 2005, Saad Hariri woke up one day as the heir not only to<br />
one of the world's biggest fortunes, but to a political legacy – with<br />
all the credits and debts that his father left. Unprepared for the<br />
public life – he admits that himself – Saad Hariri had to relinquish<br />
an empire of companies in which he made the final decisions and<br />
multiplied a fortune estimated in 8 billion dollars. Now, he has been<br />
living a life that few can envy. Surrounded by bodyguards and a<br />
security detail gigantic even for Lebanese standards, he lives under<br />
permanent threat. And the risk extends to his closest aids – one of<br />
whom has not left the palace since August, when he received a warning<br />
that sounded reliable enough. Three weeks ago, mortars were found<br />
close to Hariri's mansion (which, like others in Beirut, is a<br />
monumental palace surrounded by destroyed houses and unfinished<br />
buildings).<br />
Three months after the death of his father, in an election round that<br />
had a surprisingly meagre turnout of 28%, Hariri was elected to<br />
parliament and became the leader of the largest parliamentary group,<br />
welded together by their purported aversion to Syria's power over<br />
Lebanon. Vested with that sudden significance, Hariri often looks out<br />
of place. Despite carrying a masbaha, the traditional rosary often carried by elderly men,<br />
Hariri is himself surrounded by men old enough to be his father or grandfather,<br />
who continuously come in and out of his private quarters.<br />
Yet despite the lack of privacy, he seems unaffected. At the lunch to which this reporter<br />
was invited, as the interview took three times longer than previously agreed, Hariri<br />
ignored all ceremony: he would call everyone to the table<br />
and deal with politics right there, while bodyguards, assistants<br />
and other small-rank employees would be watching TV in the same room,<br />
as if they owned the house as much as Hariri himself. Introducing some<br />
waiters by their name, he would insist that I tried the most varied<br />
dishes of the Lebanese cuisine, cooked by the local chef. But,<br />
somewhat belying the imaginary extra years suggested by the <i>masbaha</i>,<br />
Hariri chose a hamburger with fries and ketchup. Throughout the<br />
interview, when not fiddling with the rosary, Hariri would be holding<br />
the tape recorder. His legs, incessantly fidgeting, were not<br />
a sign of nervousness, he said – that was out of frustration for not<br />
being able to do as much as he says he would like to.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO
YOU CONSIDER AT ALL, EVEN SLIGHTLY, THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOUR FATHER'S
MURDER, AND THE OTHER ASSASSINATIONS, COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BY SOMEONE
ELSE OTHER THAN SYRIA? WOULDN'T SYRIA BE SHOOTING ITSELF IN THE FOOT
[with your father’s assassination]?</b><br />
<br />
I don't think so. If you look at the people who have been killed, they<br />
are from the same line of politics, and the same idea of politics. I<br />
believe that these crimes served a purpose, you know, killing Rafiq<br />
Hariri, Gebran Tueni, Samir Kassir, Bassil Fleihan and George Hawy,<br />
they served one same goal. When they killed Rafiq Hariri they killed<br />
one of – the biggest politician in Lebanon. But killing all the<br />
others was like killing the people who make the public opinion. Gebran<br />
Tueni was such an outspoken person, George Hawi, Samir Kassir,<br />
everybody read what these guys wrote, and May Chidiac used to be on<br />
television every day, she used to be listened to. What they tried to<br />
do was to send a clear message to journalists, to freedom of speech,<br />
that 'this is not something that we will accept', but the Lebanese<br />
didn't understand it and will keep on talking.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU CONFIDENT THAT IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS THERE WILL BE PEOPLE INDICTED? I SUPPOSE YOU ARE WELL BRIEFED ABOUT THE UN REPORT.</b><br />
<br />
No, I am not, actually I am the worst briefed, I don't get involved, I<br />
don't talk to them, and they don't talk to me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO YOU DON'T FEEL THAT YOU SHOULD BE ENTITLED TO SOME DIRECT INFORMATION?</b><br />
<br />
I feel that I should be entitled and that I should know things, but I<br />
have full confidence in them so I am not worried about the results or<br />
what they are doing. I feel this is a team that is professional and<br />
they would do everything possible at their hand, and they will try to<br />
expose the criminals who killed Rafiq Hariri and the others.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>COULD THE LOSS OF YOUR FATHER IN SUCH A TRAGIC MANNER MAKE YOU INTO A BITTER PERSON?</b><br />
<br />
No, I can never be bitter, I cannot hate. What I want is only justice,<br />
and the reason why I want it is because if you don't have justice then<br />
you will have the law of the jungle to rule with, and this is the<br />
problem that we have been suffering in Lebanon for the past 30 years.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SPEAKING
OF WHICH, DO YOU THINK YOUR FATHER WAS ALWAYS TRYING TO PRESERVE THE
RULE OF LAW, OR DID HE SOMETIMES BEND IT TO ACCOMMODATE PRIVATE
INTERESTS AND THE SUPPOSED CONFESSIONAL BALANCE?</b><br />
<br />
I think his end goal was the rule of law. And you have to understand<br />
that Lebanon came out of a civil war that lasted for 17 years, and in<br />
order to take a country from a civil war to a better world there is a<br />
transition period, and this transition is not a year or two or three,<br />
some countries took 5 years, 10 years, 15 years. But his end goal was<br />
to take Lebanon to a place where the rule of law is the way to rule. I<br />
think he believed that Lebanon should be the centre of the Arab world<br />
in freedom and the rule of law even. And you can't build the country<br />
or get to a point of economic success if you don't have rule of law.<br />
And this is all he wanted all the time.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DOES
THAT INCLUDE IMPLEMENTING THE TAIF [the agreement that ended the war
and established, among other things, the end of the armed militias, the
end of the Syrian occupation and the adoption of a secular government]?</b><br />
<br />
Of course. The Taif has been there for so many years and we were not<br />
supposed to sit as Lebanese, as one people and talk to each other and<br />
resolve our problems together, like this national dialogue – people are<br />
used to political instability and political differences, it is the<br />
first time in the history of Lebanon that people sit together and talk<br />
honestly, and about the problems that we never even thought we could<br />
open to each other. And if we get used to it, we can do a lot and we can<br />
get a lot achieved.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU TAKING IT TO THE ARAB SUMMIT?</b><br />
<br />
Yes, because there are some issues that… we got the consensus that the<br />
borders must be delimitated and demarked. If you take the relationship<br />
with Syria, this is something we all came with a consensus and said<br />
'yes, we want good relationship with Syria and we want embassies',<br />
something that we all decided as Lebanese. Now it needs to go to a<br />
third place where the relationship between the two countries need to be<br />
bettered and I think we need an intermediate to help us as Lebanese.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>MEDIATORS?</b><br />
<br />
Yes, mediators.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>HOW
DO YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT SYRIA'S OCCUPATION AND
YET, CONDOLEEZZA RICE COMES HERE, IN A MOST CONDESCENDING MANNER, TO
LITERALLY THANK LEBANON FOR ITS DEMOCRATIC EFFORTS, AS IF LEBANON OWED
THE U.S. GOOD BEHAVIOUR. ARE YOU TRANSFERRING THE SYRIAN INFLUENCE TO
THE U.S.?</b><br />
<br />
No, you see, I think that there are some people who try to portray<br />
that the U.S. or other countries are trying to replace the Syrian<br />
influence to another influence and I think the problem is that the<br />
western influence, or what the West is trying to do in Lebanon, if you<br />
look at it, what have they tried to do? Did they tell us 'go and fight<br />
Hezbollah, go and fight Syria’? No, they said they are looking for<br />
stability, they are looking to have the best for our economy, they are<br />
looking to have the best for our security. What they have done is<br />
served us actually, and they have helped us in ways that enabled us to<br />
get our Lebanon back. This is Lebanon, Lebanon is for the Lebanese.<br />
And no Lebanese wants any influence on Lebanon and the decisions we<br />
make.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT
ABOUT 1559 [the UN resolution that determines, among other things, the
disarming of Hezbollah] AND THE WEAPONS OF HEZBOLLAH?</b><br />
<br />
This resolution was made because of Emile Lahoud, and Emile Lahoud was voted in the parliament by pure pressure.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>YOUR FATHER VOTED FOR HIM.</b><br />
<br />
He voted for him because he had the best interest of Lebanon, it was<br />
either vote for Emile Lahoud's extension or have Lebanon destroyed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT
DOES THAT MEAN, TO HAVE "LEBANON DESTROYED"? WHAT IF RAFIQ HARIRI HAD
JUST TAKEN A STAND AND SAID "IT IS WRONG TO EXTEND THE MANDATE, AND I
JUST WON'T VOTE FOR IT"? DO YOU THINK HE WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED THEN?</b><br />
<br />
He would have been killed and we’d have seen explosions in Solidere [the<br />
downtown area rebuilt by the company founded by Rafiq Hariri] and<br />
other places.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ON 1559, WHERE DO YOU STAND?</b><br />
<br />
When you are a part of the United Nations, you must accept a<br />
resolution as it is. You cannot accept just parts of a resolution. For<br />
instance, the 425 is a resolution that was made for Lebanon, when<br />
Israel occupied Lebanon in 1978 asking it to withdraw. So if you want<br />
to be a part of the United Nations , and we want to be a part of the<br />
club of nations in the world, then we have to accept any resolution<br />
that comes out.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>BUT
HAVEN'T YOU SEEN ENOUGH EXAMPLES OF COUNTRIES THAT DO NOT COMPLY AT ALL
WITH THE UN AND CONTINUE TO PARTAKE OF THIS ‘CLUB OF NATIONS’? INDIA
HAS JUST SIGNED A NUCLEAR DEAL WITH AMERICA EVEN THOUGH THEY NEVER
SUBSCRIBED TO THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY. ISRAEL KEEPS
IGNORING RESOLUTIONS AND THEY CONTINUE TO BE THE BIGGEST FOREIGN
RECIPIENTS OF AMERICAN AID.</b><br />
<br />
We are a small nation, and they are big nations. You talk about India,<br />
you have 1.1 billion people living there, and they have a thriving<br />
economy. Lebanon is a small country. We have to accept these<br />
resolutions. For instance, now on Lebanon we have had 1595, 1636,<br />
1644. These resolutions were for the benefit of Lebanon. Look at what<br />
they brought us: they brought us to the investigation of Rafiq Hariri<br />
killing; they led to full cooperation from Syria to the investigative<br />
team; and 1644 allowed us to work on the issue of an international<br />
tribunal. So these are three resolutions that were for the benefit of<br />
Lebanon. And Lebanon has systematically demanded that Israel complies<br />
with all the UN resolutions.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHICH HASN'T MADE ANY DIFFERENCE, HAS IT?</b><br />
<br />
Listen, listen, in politics, I believe, one day these resolutions will<br />
become a necessity to Israel to implement. Nothing stays the same. In<br />
history, nations that were extremely strong became weak, and nations<br />
that were weak became strong. And we would lose our moral ground if we<br />
don't comply with the resolution while demanding that Israel complies<br />
with theirs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO YOU CONTEMPLATE THE POSSIBILITY THAT HEZBOLLAH WILL ONE DAY WAKE UP WITHOUT ITS WEAPONS?</b><br />
<br />
This is something that is interesting to me, because I believe that<br />
Hezbollah is not in the hobby of killing. Hezbollah is a party that<br />
presented a lot of martyrs to free the occupied lands of Lebanon. And<br />
it was not only Hezbollah – the resistance started in 1978, when<br />
Hezbollah didn't exist. So we have a long history of resistance. I<br />
think our main problem is not Hezbollah but the occupation by Israel<br />
and what it is doing to Lebanon. We believe that eventually, and<br />
Hezbollah believes it too, that one day we will be able to free all<br />
our lands and we will be able to live in a peaceful way. What we need<br />
to do is to find a way to protect Lebanon if things like this happen<br />
again. And this is the main question mark we have at the National<br />
Dialogue when we sit and talk [National Dialogue is a series of<br />
debates among different religious groups gathered to decide on crucial<br />
issues like Hezbollah's weapons, the Shebaa Farms and the Palestinian refugees].<br />
How do we protect Lebanon from the Israeli occupation and atrocities committed<br />
against our country? I believe that Hezbollah is a party that has done a lot for Lebanon and<br />
it can do still a lot, and the more and more Hezbollah is getting into<br />
politics, the more it will understand the Lebanese way of ruling<br />
Lebanon.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT ABOUT THE WEAPONS?</b><br />
<br />
The weapons will be resolved. I don't believe that Hezbollah is in the<br />
habit of carrying weapons left, right and centre. They believe in<br />
Lebanon, they believe in the nation of Lebanon and that Lebanon has to<br />
rule itself.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>OK, BUT THE SHEBAA FARMS. LET US SUPPOSE THEY ARE SYRIAN.</b><br />
<br />
But they are Syrian now, under the international law today the Shebaa Farms<br />
are Syrian.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO, IF THE SHEBAA FARMS ARE NOT LEBANESE, THEN TECHNICALLY LEBANON IS NOT OCCUPIED, RIGHT?</b><br />
<br />
Technically, but in reality you have to understand these lands are<br />
Lebanese. And we are not saying they are Lebanese because we want to<br />
extend our war with Israel, but in reality these lands are owned by<br />
Lebanese people, registered in Lebanon, not in Syria. So we have the<br />
legal right over these lands. The problem is that, because Lebanon is<br />
small, in the past it didn't raise its voice to say 'Israel is<br />
occupying these lands'. In the past, even if we had talked, nobody<br />
would have listened.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>IF
LEBANON IS STILL BEING OCCUPIED BY ISRAEL, IF SHEBAA ARE FINALLY
RECOGNISED AS LEBANESE, WOULD YOU FIND IT LEGITIMATE, IN THAT CASE, THAT
HEZBOLLAH CONTINUES TO HAVE WEAPONS?</b><br />
<br />
In the UN charter any land that is occupied has the right to resist.<br />
What we are doing is perfectly legal, it is perfectly legal.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHY WERE YOU CHOSEN TO SUCCEED YOUR FATHER, INSTEAD OF BAHAA, THE ELDEST SON?</b><br />
<br />
Why? We agreed, together, the family, that they would give me this<br />
nice job, that I sit here at the risk that people will kill me.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHY <i>YOU</i>?</b><br />
<br />
Because the family sat together and decided who was going to do what.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO YOU THINK YOU WERE THE MOST PREPARED?</b><br />
<br />
<br />
None of us were prepared.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>AND WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT HEREDITARY POLITICS? WHY DID YOU ACCEPT? YOU MAY EVEN END UP AS PRIME MINISTER.</b><br />
<br />
I don't want to be prime minister.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>YOU DON'T? TRULY?</b><br />
<br />
Truly. Because I have a better title.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHICH IS...?</b><br />
<br />
Saad Rafiq Hariri.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>AND WHAT CAN SAAD RAFIQ HARIRI DO FOR LEBANON?</b><br />
<br />
What I am trying to do now. I am trying to give hope to the young guys<br />
in Lebanon, that Lebanon is worth living for, that we could be united,<br />
we could work out our problems with ourselves and give, you know, this<br />
national feeling for Lebanon.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO
YOU THINK YOU ARE IN TOUCH WITH SOCIAL REALITY IN LEBANON? LET'S FORGET
THE REGIONAL PROBLEMS FOR A MOMENT AND THE RELIGIOUS ISSUES. WHAT ABOUT
THE PRICE OF FOOD, GASOLINE, SALARIES, SOCIAL SECURITY. CAN YOU REALLY
GET OUT OF THIS IVORY TOWER AND SYMPATHISE WITH THE PEOPLE AND THEIR
DAILY PROBLEMS?</b><br />
<br />
I feel with what is happening and I wish I could do more. Believe me,<br />
it is not an ivory tower, I am living in a prison. I don't go out, I<br />
don't see anyone, I cannot do anything, I just sit here and meet<br />
people day and night, and I try to meet as many people as I can.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU LIVING ABROAD?</b><br />
<br />
Abroad?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>YES, YOU WERE LIVING IN FRANCE FOR A WHILE.</b><br />
<br />
No, that was a while ago.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU STAYING HERE FOR THE MOMENT?</b><br />
<br />
I am staying here for a while.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>HOW DO YOU FEEL KNOWING THAT YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER?</b><br />
<br />
Great. It’s exciting.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>YOU MEAN IT?</b><br />
<br />
Oh yeah.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ADRENALINE BOOSTING?</b><br />
<br />
Yes, like jumping with a bungee jump – you don't know if the cord is<br />
going to be cut off or not. [[he laughs]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU NEGLECTING YOUR COMPANIES? YOU ARE SAID TO BE A GREAT BUSINESSMAN.</b><br />
<br />
That's what they say.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>I WONDER HOW MUCH BETTER YOU ARE A BUSINESSMAN THAN YOU CAN EVER BE A POLITICIAN.</b><br />
<br />
Definitely a better businessman.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DID YOU STOP LOOKING INTO YOUR COMPANIES?</b><br />
<br />
I have my brothers, who are taking care of the business, and we talk a<br />
lot. I am handing over what I was doing.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO BASICALLY YOU ARE NOT TAKING ANY RESPONSIBILITY AS FAR AS YOUR BUSINESSES GO?</b><br />
<br />
No, I am handing them over.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO YOU ARE FULL TIME WITH POLITICS NOW?</b><br />
<br />
Not now, but I will be.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>NOT AS A PRIME MINISTER, THOUGH.</b><br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT EXPATRIATES BEING ENTITLED TO VOTE?</b><br />
<br />
I think that anything that can make people feel proud of being<br />
Lebanese and connect them to Lebanon, should happen. I am with it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>BUT WOULDN'T THAT TILT THE CONFESSIONAL BALANCE?</b><br />
<br />
It doesn't tilt the balance. This is all nonsense. For me there is no<br />
Christian and Muslim, I don't believe it. And people who think like<br />
this are sick.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESSES IN BRAZIL?</b><br />
<br />
I don't have a business in Brazil. My only business in Brazil is to<br />
get the Lebanese people in Brazil to feel that they are connected with<br />
Lebanon and I feel that the Lebanese who live in Brazil are very<br />
very lucky people, because actually the Brazilians took them as they<br />
are, and considered them as Brazilians, but I believe that we should<br />
do much more for them as a government and try to connect them with<br />
their country, because at the end of the day, Lebanon is their home,<br />
like Brazil is, and Lebanon is a great country to be in. And one day<br />
when they come here, they will see what Lebanon went through and how<br />
the Lebanese people were able to take the burden from [meaning<br />
to go from] the civil war to a place where all the Arab world and all<br />
the world are coming to.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO YOU BELIEVE THAT LEBANON WILL EVER SIGN A PEACE DEAL WITH ISRAEL, LIKE JORDAN AND EGYPT?</b><br />
<br />
You should ask uh… we believe that the Arab summit that happened in<br />
Beirut had a very good proposal for Israel.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>OFFERING THEM THE CHANCE TO SIGN A PEACE TREATY WITH THE ARAB COUNTRIES IF THEY RETURN TO THE 67 BORDERS AND…</b><br />
<br />
And we will be the last one to sign with Israel. We are a small<br />
country and we believe that Arabs should take this initiative, and<br />
they have, and then have Israel sign, do something with the Arabs. We<br />
cannot do it by ourselves.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>OK,
LET ME SEE IF I GET IT RIGHT: IF ISRAEL GOES BACK TO THE 67 BORDERS AND
STOPS OCCUPYING ARAB LAND, WOULD YOU SIGN A PEACE TREATY WITH ISRAEL,
YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO...</b><br />
<br />
If the Arabs sign, we sign. But we don't sign if they don't sign.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO IT HAS TO BE A COLLECTIVE DECISION?</b><br />
<br />
Yes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>THE MOHAMMED CARTOONS. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE ISSUE? WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE ISSUE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH?</b><br />
<br />
Hum, tough question. I mean, to be so insensitive about Islam and draw<br />
cartoons about Mohammed, who is the prophet that we in Islam look up<br />
to and think of as our prophet. I think that there is a lot of<br />
insensitivity in the way these cartoons were done. I believe that you<br />
cannot touch people's pride and belief the way they did. It is not<br />
about freedom of speech, it has to do with provocation of a<br />
civilization. And the problem is that if you provoke a religion…<br />
Religion is one of the most extremely sensitive issues with people, and<br />
if you are not sensitive to that, it will raise all the problems we<br />
have seen.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO YOU THINK THIS SENSITIVITY TOWARDS PEOPLE'S FEELINGS SHOULD BE IMPOSED BY LAW OR SHOULD BE A MATTER OF PERSONAL CHOICE?</b><br />
<br />
I believe that like there are laws for anti-Semitism and all that,<br />
there should be laws to respect religion.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES A STATESMAN?</b><br />
<br />
A statesman?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>YES.
SOME PEOPLE SAY YOUR FATHER WAS A STATESMAN, I COULD HAVE OBJECTIONS TO
THAT, AS I HAVE MY OWN IDEA OF WHAT A STATESMAN IS. WHAT IS YOUR IDEA
OF A STATESMAN?</b><br />
<br />
Why do you have objections to that?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>I SAID 'I COULD'. YOU ARE THE ONE BEING INTERVIEWED HERE. ONE DAY, MAYBE, I WILL LET YOU KNOW.</b><br />
<br />
Tell me now.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>OH I HAVE MANY OBJECTIONS.</b><br />
[[tape recorder is shut off. I tell him my objections.]]<br />
<br />
I think a statesman is somebody people trust, people like. A statesman<br />
takes position that benefits the country, and not for the sake of<br />
politics.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>THE
35 BILLION DOLLAR DEBT. HOW DO YOU ANSWER THE ACCUSATION THAT YOUR
FATHER WAS THE MAIN PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR DEBT WORTH AROUND 180% OF THE
GDP?</b><br />
<br />
When you are coming out of a war and you see the devastation that<br />
Lebanon was living in, and you want to attract people to come to<br />
Lebanon, to bring back Lebanon to where it was, and to turn Lebanon<br />
into the main base for the world to come to, especially after the<br />
country was marked as a haven for terrorists and kidnappers and all of<br />
that… What has been done since 1992 until today, if you look at the<br />
reconstruction and the development of Lebanon, it is being quite<br />
tremendous. At the same time you cannot ignore the fact that you came<br />
out of a war. And coming out of a civil war means that at the<br />
beginning you have an agreement to stop the war and start building the<br />
government. And this is the transition you see. Part of the debt has<br />
been to rebuild Lebanon. About 50% or 60% was to establish the<br />
security forces. And part is to service the debt, and that is the<br />
problem. If you didn't do anything in Lebanon when my father came, the<br />
debt today would be about 25 billion dollars.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>WHOSE CALCULATION IS THAT?</b><br />
<br />
Because if you had left the airport the way it was, the roads the way<br />
they were, the infrastructure, the telephone, the electricity, the<br />
water and everything that was done, Lebanon would have had a debt of 2<br />
billion or 3 billion dollars. If you calculate, every five years it<br />
would double. Plus the interest rate, plus you don't have a GDP growth<br />
in the country, you would have a debt of 25 billion dollars.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>IS THAT CALCULATION SIGNED BY AN ECONOMIST?</b><br />
<br />
You can ask any economist and they would tell you that if nothing had<br />
been done then that would be the debt today. So you build a country<br />
and now you need to fix it politically. And fixing it politically,<br />
having political stability is what is going to take that debt out.<br />
What we did in Paris 2, my father did in Paris 2 [the donor's<br />
conference that lent money to Lebanon], was to take the debt and bring<br />
it down to where it should be. Unfortunately, we have president Lahoud<br />
who puts every stick in the wheel of the economy. Now we are going to<br />
Beirut 1 to re-establish, to reinvent the economy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>BEIRUT 1 IS THE NAME OF A NEW LOAN?</b><br />
<br />
Beirut 1 is the donor's conference that is going to help Lebanon, like Paris 2.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>AND YOU WILL BE HEADING IT?</b><br />
<br />
No, the prime minister will.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>AND YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO BE A PRIME MINISTER?</b><br />
<br />
Definitely. Why should I be?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>ARE YOU TIRED ALREADY?</b><br />
<br />
No, I am not tired, I don't think I am ready yet and there are better<br />
people than me to do that.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>DO YOU FEEL LIKE, SORT OF, YOU FELL WITH A PARACHUTE IN THIS SITUATION?</b><br />
<br />
I didn't fall with a parachute, I crash-landed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>SO IF YOUR FATHER HAD NOT BEING KILLED, YOU WOULD NOT EVEN DREAM OF ENTERING POLITICS?</b><br />
<br />
Definitely not. I wouldn't be here.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-35867205643566940952013-07-20T12:33:00.001+03:002013-07-20T12:33:46.062+03:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My piece for Vogue Homem<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKtfNjfbUtcF0PClPT8FZMp9R0RJDzFbu21M9-7psECSTENOG_1CZxIScQ-OfjMd0uWnmmIJnEaPHEOmIrP3K4qTeFdy9I3jPpmR8GWPMOcHCeGwywaAeCsAfsNz1kCMui_4Fgk-vbEU/s1600/01+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKtfNjfbUtcF0PClPT8FZMp9R0RJDzFbu21M9-7psECSTENOG_1CZxIScQ-OfjMd0uWnmmIJnEaPHEOmIrP3K4qTeFdy9I3jPpmR8GWPMOcHCeGwywaAeCsAfsNz1kCMui_4Fgk-vbEU/s320/01+(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAnNRS33-0GJ1AvGjz5BmJty3npcNNWi1VmFASq25HM8zra3Zgw2ucsWyeS_l3Ns_Nl_FtXYZMD4KUKR7fpQ86Cqs6zuwpOv5vYphOUCzCwWIJ3wnpLvbKoAX1Grb9FH-o5tnNjHQo2k/s1600/02+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqAnNRS33-0GJ1AvGjz5BmJty3npcNNWi1VmFASq25HM8zra3Zgw2ucsWyeS_l3Ns_Nl_FtXYZMD4KUKR7fpQ86Cqs6zuwpOv5vYphOUCzCwWIJ3wnpLvbKoAX1Grb9FH-o5tnNjHQo2k/s320/02+(2).jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLHXSkfl5PFYvIhPf6XoPChoq_reLCPzMI2IjULvEWTIb7UfSiUeaMrpdnd7ksyjXzslLcFNnFUDPzLFle5_EBvipCLVitYLndxv-jkp40VCzrUwZ24pY6zUiBQ7UUBnXuSUW81lLB_w/s1600/04+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSLHXSkfl5PFYvIhPf6XoPChoq_reLCPzMI2IjULvEWTIb7UfSiUeaMrpdnd7ksyjXzslLcFNnFUDPzLFle5_EBvipCLVitYLndxv-jkp40VCzrUwZ24pY6zUiBQ7UUBnXuSUW81lLB_w/s320/04+(2).jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-27283266905261302782013-05-13T08:05:00.001+03:002013-05-13T08:05:55.113+03:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Me (me me me me) test <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxQCNI7NwldtH29u20U2Q-VTijrJG1UVZ1Wpj3k37RfMrC4WvvhNGdD_Kz87J5uM-qS8QxwhdbYP4rePrHBdw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-58842933181511703712013-04-15T22:25:00.000+03:002013-04-15T22:25:42.226+03:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/136073262/CERN-Tunel-do-Tempo" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View CERN - Tunel do Tempo on Scribd">CERN - Tunel do Tempo</a> by <a href="http://www.scribd.com/paulaschmitt" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View paulaschmitt's profile on Scribd">paulaschmitt</a></div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="1.6734693877551" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_37661" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/136073262/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-27h7rmubyg9rsao3015x" width="100%"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-67476327971370898552012-04-18T20:22:00.000+03:002012-04-18T20:23:34.425+03:00“Brain candy this tasty is rare”A review of EUDEMONIA, by Gary Kamiya, co-founder of Salon<br /><br /><br />Sophia Tonemai, the heroine of A.P. Schmitt’s remarkable debut novel<br />“Eudemonia,” is one of the smartest, strangest -- and in some ways<br />scariest --protagonists I’ve come across in a long while. A young<br />Brazilian journalist based in the United States of Hysterica, Sophia<br />is at once viciously intelligent, deeply compassionate, and alarmingly<br />cold-blooded. As a reporter, Sophia has witnessed the ugly crimes<br />committed by the powerful, and she is tortured by the fact that<br />corporate crooks and warmongering politicians always get away with<br />their misdeeds. So she becomes obsessed with the idea of punishing<br />them. Sophia wrestles with an ultimate moral question: Is an<br />individual justified in meting out punishment to evildoers? She’s the<br />highest-IQ vigilante in history – Hamlet with a silencer.<br />This premise might sound unpromisingly abstract, but Schmitt’s<br />stiletto-sharp dialogue, dazzling range of high and low cultural<br />references and laugh-out-loud satiric wordplay (“Faecesbook,” “Duck<br />Chainy”, “Goldman Sucks”) make her protagonist’s quest for moral truth<br />feel as much like a killer episode of “The Daily Show” as a Socratic<br />dialogue. (Example: “When it comes to death and killing I always felt<br />very natural about it, even as a child,” Sophia writes. “For a long<br />time I thought ‘Thou shalt not kill’ was a statement unfairly singling<br />out this guy, Thou, and I just wanted to know who did Thou kill to<br />deserve the mention. I can’t lie about it: I looked up to Thou.”) And<br />Schmitt captures Sophia's softer side, too, in her relationships with<br />two memorably-drawn friends.<br />There is a lot of great stuff in Eudemonia, and it is completely<br />original. Schmitt’s command of English is alarmingly precise, and she<br />is an amazingly talented writer and thinker. I have almost never come<br />across a writer both as smart and as funny as she is and have never<br />read anything quite like it. Eudemonia is an amazingly original piece<br />of work.<br />The way the moral conundrum is ultimately resolved, or not resolved,<br />may disturb some readers. But Sophia is such an original character,<br />and this sui generis philosophical/political thriller is so<br />thought-provoking, that you don’t mind. Brain candy this tasty is rare.<br /><br />-- Gary Kamiya, co-founder of Salon.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-15013463650455464282012-02-02T13:27:00.004+02:002012-02-02T13:37:04.997+02:00<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>PT-BR</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:enableopentypekerning/> <w:dontflipmirrorindents/> <w:overridetablestylehps/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="Constantia","serif";font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >This is an excerpt from Eudemonia. Any numerically accurate coincidence is just you making inferences.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="Constantia","serif";font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" ><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span style="Constantia","serif";font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" ><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >While she is getting dressed for her first yoga experience, Sophia hears her phone ring. It’s her friend at the FBI. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“You may want to tone down the sweatshop entry on your blog,” he says, even before hello. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“You read it?” she asks with surprise. Sophia waits two seconds for the criticism, or the praise, but he hasn’t called for either. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Your timing is off, buddy. Or very on, I don’t know. This is exclusive to your ears, you only, we have a gag order on this,” he pauses, waiting for her to promise silence. She does. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“The CEO you were bashing has been kidnapped.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Which one?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Nife’s.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Pill Knife?” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Yes.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Kidnapped?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“That’s what we’re hoping for at this point. There has been no sign of the man for weeks now. The family got no message, no ransom request, nothing.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“How long has it been?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“We don’t know for sure. His disappearance was reported several weeks after his last communication. His personal assistant received a postcard from the Seychelles with a stamp from Victoria’s post-office, signed by her boss, in his own handwriting. But we found no record of him being there, not a single hotel registration, no flight logs with him arriving or leaving the island.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“What’s on the postcard?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Just a short note telling his assistant he had changed his plans, and asking her to cancel appointments for the next two weeks. We now think the card was sent to waste our time, to delay the search. But it’s written by him, that we know for sure.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“That’s all? Just cancelling his appointments?”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“I never saw the card, but that’s about it. There was also some private joke between them, something like ‘just did it’ and beside it a curvy tick made into a smiley.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“Right. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Just do’em</i> is more like it. The son-of-a-bitch was probably eaten by his sweatshop workers.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >“I suggest you go easy on him, for your own sake” he says gravely. “I think the man’s soon to become a hero. Or a martyr.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" ><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >Imagine you work 12 hours a day standing up, sewing shoes, inhaling toxic fumes, part of your brain focused on avoiding an accident that may chop your finger off, the other part castigating you for needing to go to the toilet only four hours into your day, eight more to go and one of your two chances to pee already used up. Your urinary infection is kicking in, your sight is damaged, your lungs have a deadline, you have no health insurance. But what is really killing you is that you only see your children once a year, if the factory allows you the annual leave. You’ve been saving on the daily rice, but the margin is so meagre it still does not pay for your kid’s school books – he too will have to start working, a childhood many years shorter, another member of a whole generation of workers who will beget another generation born for that same end. After 12 hours of mind-numbing repetition your day is over, a two-dollar nightmare from which you will only sleep when you finally reach death. You go to a crammed dormitory to indulge in a bad imitation of rest, hoping your mind will grant you in that abbreviated peace some of what you’ve been deprived of in this long life. But there’s little to help in your self-delusion. Even music, that most immaterial of goods, has become the stuff of dreams – destitute of almost everything, you have no extra money for your radio batteries. And you go to sleep with the certainty – no, with the hope, and the dread – that you will be doing that same thing the next day, and the day after, and every six or seven days of the week, and every week of the month, and every month of the year, and every year till your experience is finally accumulated into nothing – when you reach enough seniority to earn a better pay, the factory will replace you with another underage, cheap human. </span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >And you will live a year, another year, many years like that, tormented and afraid, a life empty of comfort, bereft of happiness, void of even the simple, free pleasures that nature promises everyone at birth, a life where fear leaves no room for sunsets and full moons, an existence whose purpose you will fulfil without ever understanding what it is. </span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >I’ll tell you what it is. </span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >It’s to keep Knife’s 5-billion dollar net worth growing, to keep Tiger fucking, and to make sure the price of your labour is as low as the one-billion dollar in marketing is high, so it can fool those in the Realm of the Unthinking into believing they own a 100-dollar share of that fortune around their feet.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >But you’re lucky you cannot read English. It saves you from learning of the sick solution donated by Pill Knife: your life could be much better if you would only “manage your money well.” </span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";" lang="EN-GB" >That’s it, you unlucky nothing, you’re probably eating too much rice. </span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >Yes, Sophia thinks, her tone is just about right. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >Her numbers need updating, and she must add the other manufacturers. But she is not supposed to be dealing with this type of thing yet. She reluctantly glances at the numbers but there’s no point avoiding it, she knows them all by heart. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >Nife’s annual marketing budget often surpasses 1.5 billion dollars. They call that budget item ‘demand creation.’ Clever.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >The average salary of Nife shoe-makers is around 60 dollars a month, but no one knows for certain. Nife refuses to disclose the wages. In Vietnam, Nife factory workers get $40 a month; in Cambodia they get $30. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >Nife’s belated Code of Conduct was hailed with fanfare. The gullible media was relieved to have something good to say, they want a chunk of that damn ad budget. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >But the Code is not mandatory. It’s not even a clause in Nife’s contract with suppliers. It just recommends stuff. Like a limit of 60 hours of work per week – wink wink. It also recommends 14 as the minimum working age, but don’t worry, Nife won’t be checking. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >And things are done in such a cunning way that workers must actually hope conditions and salaries <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">do not</i> get better, because if they do, Nife just moves out. It’s nothing personal, you see, it’s just that Nife needs to find a poorer place where the minimum salary is lower. Nife is actually shaping government policy. It ended up inspiring whole countries and dictatorships to keep their salaries as low as possible, or else, no Nife factory for you. Nife’s executive explained it clearly: any increase in costs will make the plant ‘price itself out of the market.’ </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt;line-height: 150%"><span style="Constantia","serif"font-family:";font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" >Nife’s business strategy: scour the Earth for people willing to eat less, work more, people who truly have nothing, so the almost-nothing Nife offers is good enough. </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-52287770113587240052011-12-04T14:12:00.002+02:002011-12-04T14:15:38.756+02:00no, i am not an egg, and i am not particularly stoned here<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOaoDLQfc8R41T9FD_hN_Pu9hJq5qblrnc5pgnrSVPGOCY__Nxy22YuOQZtj1yRYtlkU01D1XnfkSlo9Yiex6AzOuzBf3Noh6nLW3oDm9d5cRw5KEGaK73j2c8wWKf2nuDkGn6ucqnu24/s1600/paula+and+hassan+nasrallah+foto+photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOaoDLQfc8R41T9FD_hN_Pu9hJq5qblrnc5pgnrSVPGOCY__Nxy22YuOQZtj1yRYtlkU01D1XnfkSlo9Yiex6AzOuzBf3Noh6nLW3oDm9d5cRw5KEGaK73j2c8wWKf2nuDkGn6ucqnu24/s200/paula+and+hassan+nasrallah+foto+photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682245590905699362" border="0" /></a><br />Hassan Nasrallah poses with Paula SchmittUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-30665153032491717422011-12-04T14:00:00.002+02:002011-12-04T14:04:33.461+02:00Dush and Paula - sue me, ho!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOqDCK1vvz2TXnxY-u622ejx9XWfDneLg_I3sGDBUM3X1sErwyG6mnYxEWi8Vz9_4Zc8mFOgTAiKgLSk0-FwOVDN6g0A3k5J7H3V6W_8BHRMvInzlGyjI5-NVMacEY3AuCd_VeT7FAAg/s1600/116-1650_IMG.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwOqDCK1vvz2TXnxY-u622ejx9XWfDneLg_I3sGDBUM3X1sErwyG6mnYxEWi8Vz9_4Zc8mFOgTAiKgLSk0-FwOVDN6g0A3k5J7H3V6W_8BHRMvInzlGyjI5-NVMacEY3AuCd_VeT7FAAg/s320/116-1650_IMG.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682242856205825154" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-13162616483261403112011-12-04T13:49:00.002+02:002011-12-04T13:54:24.962+02:00in the hope this will help sell my books...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzQtw7km3DZgHHw_-I-Xw1bkdOcB6rnE1VGW3-_0lPvAaoTYcj-5HXsXwQYN2s2HOkWWg1kW0Qq4F2HBVxYCPAmyePAaVDCOYs-Eu3yEmFNlgrFaDwqZe-IjzVFOZT733fBXpOY5sdsQ/s1600/DSC_0346.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzQtw7km3DZgHHw_-I-Xw1bkdOcB6rnE1VGW3-_0lPvAaoTYcj-5HXsXwQYN2s2HOkWWg1kW0Qq4F2HBVxYCPAmyePAaVDCOYs-Eu3yEmFNlgrFaDwqZe-IjzVFOZT733fBXpOY5sdsQ/s320/DSC_0346.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5682240237550412258" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-32368106843014951332011-11-30T16:12:00.002+02:002011-11-30T16:15:19.052+02:00EudemoniaThis is an excerpt from my novel Eudemonia, launched on Amazon<br />http://www.amazon.com/Eudemonia-ebook/dp/B006E5JI0S<br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>PT-BR</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val=""> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent><!--[endif]--><!----><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:lsdexception> </w:lsdexception><!--[endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Constantia; panose-1:2 3 6 2 5 3 6 3 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750091 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <!--[endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;" align="center"><b style=""><span style=";font-family:";" lang="EN-GB">Eudemonia<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;" align="center"><span style=";font-family:";" lang="EN-GB">A. P. Schmitt<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CArnaldo%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>PT-BR</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val=""> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent><!--[endif]--><!----><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> </w:lsdexception><w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:lsdexception> </w:lsdexception><!--[endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Constantia; panose-1:2 3 6 2 5 3 6 3 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750091 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <!--[endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;" align="center">1<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">“I grew up worried that one day I’d give birth to the son of God and no one would believe I was a virgin. I had a whole speech prepared for the moment the Chosen One started to germinate, and the only thing I now find weird is that I never thought I was the Chosen One himself, and only because at the time I didn’t think a woman could be more than the container of the elect. One time I had an aspiring zit smack in the middle of my forehead, and I know I should have been embarrassed and I tried to hide it and all, but while the other girls called that my uni-horn, I thought that was my third eye finally making itself known – my uber wisdom was becoming physical. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m like that. I assume things happen to me for a reason, and they have a cryptic, supernatural meaning. A zit is not a skin problem – it’s the corporeal manifestation of unbound insight. I see purpose related to my person in every little detail, the universe has a plan for me and I can feel it. Even if part of me thinks that’s stupid, the other part retorts no, you stupid. Later in life I was sure I was going to die at 33. That was my connection with the Divine, our magical integer, I thought that number was beautiful – if you put 3 and 3 together side by side, not like they are doing it doggy style but like they are french kissing, you get an 8, which if you lay to sleep becomes the infinite. Life was written in ciphers and I was anxious to crack my code. Some of it was probably hidden in my talents, but they had so many purposes I got confused. What to do with the striking traits I share with cyborgs, like my superhuman sense of smell? Bionic woman or sniffing bitch at airport security? <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Confronted with the burning doubt of what the hell I am good for, I sat thinking on lesser conundrums like the chicken, the egg and the incessant quest for the origin of poultry. Meanwhile, I waited for the stars to reveal their plan for me. Yeah, I meant exactly that: stars with the ability to plan and with an eye on me. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">That’s the thing about knowing and believing – the first requires reason, validation. The second doesn’t require shit. It just takes some unbalanced hormones, the wrong amount of dopamine and voilà, suspension of disbelief. People with extra dopamine become so credulous they take up gambling or religion. I myself have no dopamine to spare. My disbelief is widespread, deeply ingrained. I’m the unwanted child of the cynic and the nihilist when they were both drunk on half-empty glasses. I doubt almost everything with one nagging exception – my sainthood. When it comes to self-awareness, I am the first to know I’m nuts and the last to question my sanity. This duality could be a type of schizophrenia but I have it on good authority that if you call it first and say you’re crazy (I’m crazy), then you’re sane, because a crazy person never suspects herself to be crazy. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">So one day I woke up and decided to do something for the world, something meaningful, a thing that could change people’s lives. Don’t get me wrong, I feel sorry for those afflicted with messiah syndrome and I’m often annoyed by their lack of efficiency. People are so bent on making the world a better place they hardly worry about their sidewalk. I mean, yes, ok, go ahead and try improve the world, halt global warming, stop war, free Tibet, save the fucking whales, but we’ll be happy enough if you just help the elderly cross the street, recycle your damn bottles, learn to fucking vote. But of course, not me – those were way too small for my mission. I did some of those things and was rewarded with instant gratification, but then I thought:<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;"> Am I not being selfish with the world?<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">How could I limit the scope of my interference when I had more means than the average Joe and could thus do more for the world than recycling my bottles? Even my physical beauty, always searching for a tangible purpose – how could I confine it to the emptiness of fashion just for the hope of saving a bunch of seal cubs? And how best to join these two powers together, attractiveness and intelligence, into something truly useful? These two unmerited gifts must come with a burden, I thought. With a point. So I pondered: what do I want to do? And then I re-pondered: what must I do? Because the problem when you get the calling is that you may not unscramble it well. I knew I was being called, I just couldn’t tell what I was being called for. It was nothing small, that much I knew. Having a baby? Riiight. Planting a tree? Nah. Writing a book? Too much trouble. I thought I should do something meaningful, far-reaching, and yet something that didn’t require much work. (That’s when my reason always kicks in, by the way, in applying the law of the least effort, the only law I really bow to.)<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">So I considered my multi-purpose task: <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">1) help the world be a better place; <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">2) inspire people; <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">3) perpetuate my teaching. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">How can I do all of that at once, with one single strike? And it dawned on me, at dawn no less, that I should kill someone. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Yeah, I know, killing is not cute – it’s messy and it horrifies people, who then go to the movies to see people being killed. But I was never horrified. When it comes to death and killing I always felt very natural about it, even as a child. For a long time I thought Thou shall not kill was a statement unfairly singling out this guy, Thou, and I just wanted to know who did Thou kill to deserve the mention. I can’t lie about it: I looked up to Thou. Later when I saw the other commandments I had to ask my dad what drug was Thou taking – the guy was on a rampage. I was eventually very happy to know he didn’t exist, because the murderous Thou I admired would never bear false witness. Never. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">I imagine most people think the power of killing is one that should not belong to men. But, please, let us not be so adamant about killing, will us? There is a taboo against murder that’s very boring, it makes me yawn. Like death, killing is just part of life, yet try telling anyone something that includes the phrase ‘when you die’ and see the reaction. It’s rather poignant that humans cannot accept the one true certainty we are born with, that all those eons of guaranteed ending haven’t managed to make the ending any more acceptable. And if death is taboo, killing is an even bigger one, because it’s death by design. But then, consider this: What human would have objected to my attending a parade of the Third Reich and putting a bullet into the fuehrer’s head? It’d be very hard to find someone who’d blame me if I had chosen to kill Hitler. Now, if that is the case – and I believe it is – then we have established that people are not so inflexible against killing – it’s just a matter of finding the right target. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">So I figured killing would be my way of helping the world. Of taking a stand, making a few things right. I had this feeling I could be fairer than most judges I knew of. And what do judges do? Well, for one, they sentence the criminal to prevent him from repeating his crime. But, more important than that, the punishment serves as a warning to future criminals, something that will pre-emptively hamper similar crimes. ‘Hmm…’ I thought, ‘what type of crime do I want to hamper?’<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">But I didn’t need think too hard. There is one crime that is almost never discouraged here, on the contrary – it’s mostly praised, rewarded, and serves as an inspiration. The criminals usually make it to the cover of magazines, Man of the Year type of thing. People grow up wanting to be exactly like that. It’s practically taught in universities. What is the crime? Corruption. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Surely I don’t mean small-time corruption. Yeah, yeah, corruption is corruption in any form, with any amount, and you may even want to include in the definition things like jumping the line and bribing the maitre d’. But as I said before, I think big. The people injured by those misdemeanours are so few, and the harm is so small, that I say just go soc the jumper on the mouth and send him to the end of the line. What I’m talking about is not that type of corruption, that you can fix yourself. Let us optimise my powers here, please, I hate waste. (It’s like that managing-editor I had, who paid me a fortune to research and write, and one day he sees me asking the assistant to make photocopies. He then makes a Marxist face, the bonus-stuffed bastard, and says, ‘In this newsroom we all make our own photocopies, we’re equal’ (some damn weird definition of equality) to which I reply ‘Then you must be a stupid manager, and this must be the most expensive photocopy ever.’)<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes, I was fired, and no, he is not on my death list. Digression. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">When I say corruption I mean corruption of the worst form, corporate-political thievery, the one that is part of the rules and regulations, the sort of crime that makes dishonesty legal with the strike of a pen or the swift rental of a judge. I wanna get those guys who know they will never enter a courtroom through the right door because they are the very ones making the laws, squeezing, stretching, bending them forward and fucking them from behind. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">So I made that decision, and was beginning to get ready for action. It had to be done in the right way, not only because killing was complicated but because I wanted to make sure it would become an inspiration, something to scare the bejeezus out of every white-collar criminal for years to come. I wanted others to follow in my footsteps. I wanted to create a precedent. I wanted future criminals to think twice before stealing money from senior citizens. So I had to do it in a way that was going to be easy, and could be easily imitated, something like finding one of those bastards at a restaurant, a Ken Lay type, catwalk up to him, purr a ‘Nice tie,’ or ‘Have you got a lighter,’ and thrust my butter knife right into his throat. Once the killing is done a manifesto is issued and fear will finally spread to where fear doesn’t reach. That’s what I want – I want those rascals to be afraid for once, to be terrorised. It’s the reason why looming punishment works so well – because it’s preventive. Only the guys who are never at risk are the ones who control us, who hold our money, our future, the guys who should in fact be terrorised, be kept on their toes. These are the men who have not one boss, they have millions – all of us – and yet they are never made accountable or compelled to perform. I want to slap one of those sons-of-bitches in the face and say ‘You broke my heart, Fredo,’ then break his neck in return and leave a note stapled to his forehead with a message to other evil-doers, ‘Truth is gonna get you, buddy, and it will smash your teeth, chop your pinky and break your kneecaps.’ <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Now, get this. I used to be against gun ownership. I thought only idiots bore weapons. But I was wrong. In fact, the basis for gun rights is so enlightened Jefferson would have an attack of cognitive dissonance if he came back today. The founding fathers believed that citizens should have the means to revolt against an unjust government. They believed the state should not be more powerful than its own people united. We must spread the word that guns are not only useful against burglars, they also protect us against the tyranny of corporatocracy and the government, its most obedient slut; that guns may help us equalise some stuff – not all stuff, some stuff. I don’t want to make guns seem more important than they are. We can also kill white-collar criminals with the right injection. With a heavy book. Something in their food. We can strangle them to death in their neckties. We just have to know how to infiltrate, enter their environment, climb the elevator in that rotten corporation until we reach the penthouse office and crack the crook’s head with a paper weight. I say let us all be potential vigilantes. Let us make them scared. Let the miscreants and their enablers fear the streets, traffic lights, restaurant tables, even the corridors of power – because there will always be someone with a bucket and a broom cleaning it. Let them fear every minion worker in the world. Let them be terrorised with the idea that they can never hire a nanny for their brat because she may have been inspired by the same indignation. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">I know there is one glitch in this: who can know for sure who are the white-collar criminals? That’s a bitch, because the same papers that should expose the criminals are the ones usually owned by them. The papers may even try to throw us off course. So now the drag is to find the sources that would keep us reasonably informed of the crimes we want to curb. And I know it’s hard to find them. Even the well-intentioned ones have problems. They are often badly written, or way too passionate, and way-er too left-wingy. They think it’s wrong for corporations to fuck us but they assume it’s ok for the government to do it. I don’t get that. They also think the salaries of politicians and technocrats should be small by principle – objection! Get bloody real. If we don’t pay them well, we get only two main types of political candidates: the ones full of good intentions who can’t tell budget from revenue, or the skilled thieves who are there to become rich. The political aberration known as an honest-and-competent politician can hardly happen in our world, because the men with those qualities know they will not be fairly rewarded. So we’re left with the ones seeking the unfair reward. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Anyways, I want to go back to the killing topic because that’s my pet salvation of the soul. Who should I kill, I wondered. Then I wondered some more. And then I thought, wait, I know a guy who should be on my list. (It’s not you, Prof.) And I am ready to do it. But the method is still unknown. I imagine it will occur to me in a dream, or I will have a vision, or someone will read it in my coffee cup. Until then, I continue being a journalist waiting to strike. By strike I obviously don’t mean writing. Writing is tamed, it’s yet another way we deviate from action and stay in the realm of ideas, stuck in the brain fog, living a life of words and grammatical errors while real life is happening outside and we are doing fuck-all. So I thought, ‘Hmm… here is my opportunity to transform my work into some real achievement: I could kill someone I’m interviewing.’ Oops, have to postpone killing, my breakfast is ready. Breakfast of champions (and it’s not me saying it, it’s the cereal box. Uncanny.)” <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Sophia got an F on that essay. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">On top of a compulsory visit to the university’s psychiatrist. <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">She named her dissertation “On the Very Personal Responsibility to Punish the Wrong-Doer When the Justice System Keeps Refusing To,” but her professor called it “a narcissistic and rather infantile apology of assassination.” <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt; line-height: 150%;">Tomayto, tomahto. <o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-29518492734697935222008-10-29T13:54:00.005+02:002009-02-18T17:05:09.351+02:00<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="color:#ff6666;">Iran and the Principle of Mutually Assured Destruction</span> <?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><o:p><strong></strong></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Like a cheap war pamphlet prodding a very susceptible bully president, the weekly <i>The Economist</i> had on its January 31 cover the question-headline “Has Iran won?” <i>The Economist</i> has lost much of its respect and has ceased to be a sober reference (remember the cover just before the Iraqi invasion saying “Why war would be justified?”) but the magazine’s articles on Iran are important because they spill the beans on the reasons for an attack – a rationale that is as irrational as it can get. There are several fallacies in <i>The Economist</i>’s article, and I am using the piece precisely because it repeats the average, lowbrow arguments with which we have been swamped in the days leading to the IAEA report on Iran. Let us not belittle the importance of a biased press – while not giving us the truth, they dutifully authenticate and spell out the day’s agenda. If recent news articles are any indication, we are no more than months away from an attack on Iran. Now, I have little fondness for Islamic republics or any religious republic for that matter. And yes, I would rather live in a world without nuclear weapons. But in the current setup of weapons distribution, Iran is only doing what it politically should, and what it is legally entitled to. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the most widely accepted arms control agreement in the world. According to the NPT, only five countries are entitled to own nuclear weapons: USA, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. It is no coincidence that these countries are the permanent members of the Security Council – they are the most capable of destroying the world, and thus keep it on a leash. What happens if one of the permanent members wants to attack another? That is prevented, or so one hopes, by the principle of MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. Countries are deterred more efficiently, it seems, by the certainty of their destruction. This logic is laid clear by the chronology of weapons acquisition. Allegedly out of fear of Nazi Germany, America was the first country to develop a nuclear weapon, efficiently tested on the Japanese. The US was then made, ad hoc, the world’s police not based on its prudence and justice, but on its power – and willingness – to destroy. Yet fear breeds dread and four years later Russia started building its own nuclear arsenal, as a defence against a possible US attack. Three years later, fearing the proximity of Russia, the United Kingdom also chose to have nuclear weapons, then it was France and then China. It’s worth noticing that this logic is at the core of the very right to bear arms in the US: citizens should have the means to defend themselves – even against their own government. If the monopoly of power was left in the hands of the state, citizens could be made hostage to an illegitimate ruler. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Now, if the US government can be seen as a potential threat even to its own people, it was therefore very naïve to imagine that in a multi-polar world all the rest of the non-nuclear countries would be fine with having five nuclear states dictating the rules. Hence, since the exclusive club of nuclear states was closed for membership, countries that wanted to go nuclear simply chose to not sign the treaty. To protect itself against China and Russia, India got its nukes. Pakistan felt threatened and started developing its own weapons program. Israel, which feels menaced by its neighbours, got its own nuclear warheads, also refusing to sign the NPT. Why, in this scenario, is Iran considered a rogue state, or, to borrow The Economist’s appalling words, should be made to “quake in its boots”? Here is where the whole story of nuclear proliferation gets even more sinister. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Iran is a subscriber to the NPT, and according to the IAEA, as of yet, has never failed to comply with the treaty itself. On the other hand, India, who did not sign the NPT, was rewarded by the American Congress with transfer of civilian nuclear material. The USA also mocks the NPT when it violates its first article by providing nuclear weapons to Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands, under the official excuse that those weapons are “under constant and complete custody and control” of the United States, being there only for storage. In fact, Iran started its nuclear program precisely when it was on good terms with America, under the shah’s government. Why is Iran now considered a bigger threat than Israel? What qualifies a state as ‘rogue’? Is it its ruler? Its people? Its rhetoric and pathetic rants? Shouldn’t a country’s actions, rather than words, determine its level of threat to the rest of the planet? Haven’t we learned that governments, even in supposed democratic states like the US, do not always represent their people, and sometimes are not even actually elected? How can one think America is the same America under Bush as it was under Jefferson, or under Carter, to find a more recent comparison? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mohammed ElBaradei is doing a decent, technical and honest job at the IAEA, despite all the external pressure. A lawyer by formation, he has refused to skip due process and is sticking to the letter of the treaty. It is not his, or America’s job, to guess the ‘motivation’ of countries. Israel believes its soil belongs to the Jewish people, and that they have been chosen by God. This type of religious premise is as horrifying, though more dangerous, than India calling its first nuclear test the “Smiling Buddha” or Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust – something more pathetic than harmful. In politics, words mean very little. Actions, on the other hand, mean a lot. It is the IAEA, not the US, which has the means, competence and independence to decide Iran’s nuclear future. America doesn’t have the legal mandate to decide, much less the moral right – the one thing we expect from the police is that they are less criminal and corrupt than the thugs they are trying to protect us from.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Paula Schmitt<br /><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Op-Ed published in Executive Magazine, March 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-64213161019949820792008-03-18T13:10:00.005+02:002009-02-18T17:05:44.079+02:00<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">This is a rough translation of my article on Lebanon (Bem-Vindo ao Libano), published in Rolling Stone Brasil, August 2007.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6666;"><strong>Welcome to Lebanon<br />by Paula Schmitt<br />August 2007, Rolling Stone Brasil<br /></strong></span><br />Beirut, Friday, 3 pm, my phone beeps with a text message. It is a notice from Basement, a nightclub in the dungeons of an old, abandoned factory, calling for a party with an international DJ, Abe Duque. That could be just another invitation for a night out in a cosmopolitan capital in the world, were it not for a detail that has become very Lebanese: at the end of the message, a reminder that has almost become the slogan for the club gives me yet another reason to go party at Basement: "It is safer underground".<br /><br /><br />In the first four weeks of this summer, in Beirut alone there were six explosions and several deaths, almost all of them from car bombs. One could expect the Beirutis to get frightened and spend their nights at home – but not the Lebanese. While bombs explode on the surface, they have fun in the underground and on top of buildings. Bars that sit on the terraces of hotels and commercial buildings were resuscitated by necessity and pack every night, though tourists failed to show up this summer. The resilience of the Lebanese is such that last year's war with Israel was barely over and construction works started the next day. Since then till now, in one single ten-block area in the neighbourhood of Gemayze, 14 new bars and restaurants have been opened. Fear – the Lebanese seem to insist – is a failure bigger than death.<br /><br />When he was here in 1997, Pope John Paul II said something that synthesises the fascination exerted by this place: " Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message". Confined in a small area (88km in its wider part and about 220 km in length, almost half the size of Sergipe), the four million Lebanese in the country represent a social and religious diversity among the richest in the world. In a region dominated by religious fundamentalism, where the colours of the individual are diluted in a monochromatic behaviour, Lebanon is an oasis of freedom in a desert of prohibitions. And I noticed that the first day I arrived here.<br /><br />After two years working in Egypt, at the end of 2001 some friends and I came to ski in the snowy mountains of Lebanon. The Lebanese like to boast that in their country one can ski in the snow and in less than half an hour be at sea swimming. But the contrasts here go far beyond geography – and that is the message the Pope was referring to. While in Egypt a group of men were awaiting trial under the 'accusation' of being homosexuals, on my first night in Beirut I saw the unthinkable: public displays of affection between people of the same sex. In Lebanon there is even an association founded for the protection of homosexuals – moral protection, not physical. This is because, according to George Azzi, coordinator of Helem (dream, in Arabic), in Lebanon there have been no cases of attacks against homosexuals, as those committed by skinheads in Europe or the United States. "Gays and lesbians have here a freedom that one cannot see anywhere else in the Middle East , but we still have a lot to do in order to eliminate the stigma within the families". After years living here, I am still surprised at the diversity, though I keep bumping into it on every corner.<br />Images of the Virgin Mary punctuate the city, sharing space with Iranian ayatollahs. Women with their head covered walk by the corniche side by side with friends exposing legs and bellybuttons. At the end of the year, Christmas trees decorate the streets, and in downtown Beirut, late afternoon, one can hear a religious battle that has a charm of its own: church bells and muezzins in the mosque try to see who can call for prayer the loudest. While in Saudi Arabia red roses are taken from the market during Valentine's Day, since this is considered a pagan celebration, in Lebanon even Muslims have the nativity scene at home, in a religious syncretism that would put people in jail or send them to death in other countries in the region. But freedom, like almost every concept, is relative.<br /><br />Having just arrived from Egypt, where more women were opting for the niqab, the full veil, in Lebanon I felt that freedom seemed to suffer another type of oppression, albeit consented. Women here had so much plastic surgery and silicone in their faces that some of them became deformed. According to data from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in proportional numbers Lebanon occupies the fourth place in the plastic surgery rank, and in absolute numbers it is the 22nd in the world. The demand for plastic surgery is so high that a Lebanese bank ended up launching a whole loan exclusive for plastic surgeries. According to George Nasr, Marketing Manager of First National Bank, "the number of surgeries here grows more than 100% every year". But in their quest for impossible perfection, some women looked like inflatable dolls. Plastic surgery today is a little more subtle, but five years ago the permanent black contour on the lips was so ostensive that a friend used to describe the women who had it as "black belts in blow-job". For me, Lebanon was beginning to make sense: good or bad taste, extravagance or simplicity, it was refreshing to be in a country where one is free to copy or innovate, hide or reveal, be what one wants to be – or almost.<br /><br />In a philosophical contortionism, for some the freedom to show invades the freedom to not see. As soon as I got here I was confronted with a very emblematic example of this situation. When one drives on the highway from the north of Beirut (Junieh, Christian area) to the south of the city (Ouzai, Shiia area), the horizon of billboards changes drastically. In Junieh, billboards advertised a jeans brand showing women wearing practically no jeans at all. But as soon as one gets to Ouzai, close to the international airport, one has the impression of being in another country: photos of women baring nothing more than their shoulders were blacked out with paint to hide what they dared to reveal. According to Hughette Nassar, Sales Manager of Pikasso, the biggest billboard company in Lebanon, the problem is not restricted to the Shiia areas controlled by Hezbollah. "In Dahie (Shiia area) as well as in Saida (Sunni city south of Beirut), Pikasso simply does not show women on the billboards, unless they are completely dressed. It is not the law that forbids the billboards, but the local customs, and we respect those customs".<br /><br />The only time I needed to cover my hair was when I interviewed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of the shiia group Hezbollah. In 2003, after having paid them a few visits and having probably been investigated, the party accepted my request to interview its leader, the first exclusive interview for a Latin American journalist. The excessive security is not for nothing: reporter and photographer are two of the professions most used as cover for spies, and Lebanon is considered by specialists as having the largest proportional number of intelligence agents in the world. Two former agents who worked as spies in Lebanon were contacted by this reporter, Alastair Crooke (ex-MI6) and Robert Baer (ex-CIA), but they refused to confirm or deny the information. Regardless of how many spies are working in the country, Hezbollah is certainly one of the biggest targets of intelligence agencies operating in the region. After the end of the civil war, which lasted 15 years and killed around 150 thousand people, Hezbollah as the only militia in Lebanon allowed by the government to keep its weapons. Unlike other groups in the civil war which used to fight each other, Hezbollah was created with the declared objective of fighting for the liberation of Lebanon, occupied by Israel.<br /><br />But nothing is clear or definitive in the Lebanese civil war. The first time I watched the 12 hours of the longest documentary on the subject, Harb Lebnan, I had to rewind the DVD all the time, thinking I had misunderstood the story. Apologising to the Lebanese friends who were probably watching that story for the umpteenth time, I used to put the blame on my short-term memory: "Sorry, guys, I thought that militia was fighting against the other one, I must have missed something". "No you didn't", was the answer, "you saw it correctly – they just changed sides". But it was not only the Lebanese who fought each other. The list of countries directly involved in the Lebanese civil war shows the strategic importance of this land, and how it was used as a field for other battles. Throughout its 15 years, the Lebanese civil war had the participation (through money, militias and/or armies) of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, Libya, Iraq, Iran, the Vatican, Jordan, Egypt, Russia, PLO, USA, Franca, Italy and others.<br /><br />One of the scenes in Harb Lebnan that made me believe my brownie was enhanced was when the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in 1982. In one of those paradoxes that are not often discussed, the Israeli army was welcomed to Lebanon with rice and rose water, kindly cast upon them by no less than Shiia inhabitants of the South. This is because the Palestinians, taking refuge also in the South, tried to liberate their land attacking Israel – but those who got the retaliation back on their heads were the Shiia living in the area. The Palestinians, who in large part were the trigger for the civil war in the country, today are confined in 12 refugee camps, 400 thousand of them living in conditions that would put the Brazilian favelas to shame. In their fourth generation, the majority are made of people without a passport, without the right to own a property, without the right to work on any specialised profession, from engineer to lawyer, doctor to teacher, and without the right to become a Lebanese citizen, even after decades living here. There are two main reasons for the almost total lack of rights by the Palestinians, one is openly declared, the other not so much. The first is that Arabs believe that the Palestinians have the right to the land from which they were expelled, specially the ones<br />taken by Israel after the creation of the Jewish state, beyond the borders sanctioned by the United Nations. The other reason is that in Lebanon the political power is shared among the religions, according to the number of citizens in each religion. If 400,000 Palestinians were naturalised, the power – numerical and therefore political – would be in the hands of the Sunnis, the religion of the absolute majority of Palestinians refugees in Lebanon.<br /><br />For those who think there was only one concept of democracy, the Lebanese political system is an eye-opener. So far, the concept of democracy for me was the one taught by Rousseau: the will of the majority. But even Rousseau made a caveat: the will of the majority can only be democratic if this majority is volatile, mobile, and at each election is composed of different people. If the majority group is always the same, then the system becomes a type of tyranny of the majority. Thus, let us suppose the majority of Lebanon citizens are Sunnis: if each voter has the right to a vote, the will of the majority would always be the will of the Sunnis. To avoid this and other distortions, Lebanon has a political system almost unique in the world, known as Consociationalism.<br /><br />Under this system, the government is shared among the religions: the president of the country is always a Maronite Christian (the Maronite Church has its own liturgy but accepts the authority of the Pope), the prime-minister is always a Sunni Muslim and the leader of parliament is a Shiia Muslim. The parliament is also divided: half of the seats go to the Christians (among them Greek-Orthodox, Romans, Armenians) and the other half goes to Muslims (Shiia, Sunni, Druse). One of the problems with such partition is that the religious demographics in Lebanon today are different from when the rule was created. Scared by war and religious fundamentalism, and with less children per household compared to other religions, Christians no longer make half of the country's population, and therefore should not have the right to half of the government. But if the numbers do not match, just hide the numbers: since 1932 there has been no official census in the country.<br /><br />While politics and religion sleep in the same bed, political chiefs acquire an almost holy status, and religious leaders meddle in politics. The incestuous relation causes situations rarely seen in other countries. In my Master's thesis in Political Science about the personality cult in Lebanon, a collection of over a thousand pictures shows how the religious-political allotment of the government ends up creating anomalies – some of them, fascinating. One of the most venerated Christian leaders in the country, the ex-warlord Samir Geagea, accused of having killed more Christians than Muslim militiamen, has photo-montages spread around the city in which he is posing with none other than Christ himself, and with the founder of the Maronite Church. Pictures of Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief who is almost as much a religious leader as he is a politician, decorate the walls of student dorms along the photos of Che Guevara. Yet other posters manage to be endearing for how much they reflect a popular will, rather than reality. That is the case with the billboards of Musa Sadr, perhaps one of the most courageous and rational political-religious leaders ever to live in Lebanon. Founder of the Movement of the Deprived, the Shiia leader used to lecture in churches and Christian schools, and used to say that the Koran and Science could not be in contradiction. In his book "The Vanished Imam", Fouad Ajami claims that Sadr got to say that if the Koran and Science determined different things, either the Koran – or the interpretation we make of it – would have to be wrong. As could have been expected, Sadr did not last long. In 1978, in a visit to Libya, the Shiia leader disappeared, probably assassinated. But for many Shiias, Sadr is the Mahdi, the hidden Imam who is alive and will return one day to rule his people. Posters of Sadr are spread around the city, with a detail that is almost imperceptible: rejecting the evidence that the leader is dead, in some of the paintings and montage Sadr's beard continues to grow grey.<br /><br />In one of those incursions into the Shiia neighbourhoods to take photos of political and religious leaders, I ended up in Haret el Horeik, where the offices of Hezbollah are located. With the help of Ali, a Shiia driver, I kept on shooting photos, usually from inside the car, of the pictures of martyrs who died fighting Israel and the Iranian Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, omnipresent in the area. But at a certain moment a Hezbollah member, tall, strong, wearing a earpiece and carrying a radio, comes towards me and says I cannot take pictures in that area. "Why?" I asked. "Because you can't", he answered. I retorted saying that Lebanon was a free country and he was not an authority. "No", he said, I was wrong: that was a security area and he was indeed an authority. He asked me if I knew anyone from Hezbollah. I was going to say "Hassan Nasrallah", but until then I hadn't thought it was necessary. I said I knew Hussein Naboulsi, head of Public Relations in the party. The man then gets away, makes a phone call, comes back and tells me to call Naboulsi and "solve my problem". I respond saying "the one who has a problem is Naboulsi, not me. He has my number, he can call me". My problem, in fact, was not with Hezbollah, though somehow it is as well, but with authorities that authorised themselves a little too much, regardless of their political inclination – I am almost democratic in my disrespect of authority. In downtown Beirut, reformed and made into a private company whose main shareholder was Prime-Minister Rafic Hariri (in opposite camp to that of Hezbollah), private security personnel asked me to go and register in Solidere, the company that manages the area, so that I could use my movie camera. "I prefer to be arrested than ask permission from a private company to film a public area", I said. It worked. But with Hezbollah, it didn't. After refusing to call Naboulsi, Ali and I could not get in the car again. We were approached by several Hezbollah agents, all very big, polite, and incisive: they wanted to see the pictures I took. Until then I thought the problem were my photos of Khomeini. In a very broken Arabic, I would squeak "you revere Ayatollah, you put photo Ayatollah all over and I no can make photo of photo?" How silly of me – the Ayatollah was not the problem. At that time I didn't know, but those posters I photographed were plastered precisely on the walls of Hezbollah's security buildings, which a few months later would be destroyed in the Israeli bombing in July 2006. In the forty minutes that followed, Ali and I had to fill forms, give our passport number, contact, telephone, address, and we were taken to a parking lot where armed men were guarding I don't know what. When it looked like that drag was about to end, other men showed up, and with all the education in the world, without touching anyone, convinced me to delete some of the photos in my camera. At that moment, amidst the more than a thousand pictures that fit in my camera card, I see one photo that could help me: there I was, hijab covering my hair, sitting pretty with Hassan Nasrallah, a photo I had left in my camera in case I should need it. But the photo made no difference at all – or perhaps it did, for the worse. For the Hezbollah security men, I suppose, if I were a spy that picture could only be further evidence that I was doing a great job. I had already read the book By Way of Deception, written by a probable ex-Mossad agent describing the way they work, and after that the paranoia made all sense. The book, unfortunately, is not sold in Brazil. When it looked like everything was about to end, and both Ali and I thought we are going to be let go, one of the Hezbollah guys gets in the car with us. "What on earth is that, Ali?" I ask, thinking the situation is ceasing to be funny. "We are being taken to the headquarters", he says. I froze. But I tried to keep my cool. Breath in. Breath out. I tried to find something to do. I opened my camera and started looking at old pictures, remembering the happy moments: my beach house, my relatives, the wedding of my friend Dushanka in Italy, when we ended up swimming naked in a volcanic lake, the… QUE??? Pause to avoid fainting. I could not believe it. Right after my photo with Nasrallah,<br />there we were, eight friends, including me, walking out of the volcanic lake in pairs, hand in hand, completely naked, each one with his/her underwear covering the hair… My god. How the hell do I delete this? Does it help that I covered my head? The worst part is that those pictures had that bloody little key sign on them, protected from deletion, and I had no idea how to erase them. I started to tremble. We arrived.<br /><br />The three of us went up in an elevator of a very simple building. We stopped on a certain floor. A door opens. A man with a calm voice, bare foot, and a hand over his heart, says "salam aleikom". "Waaleikom salam", I answer. "Your camera", he says in English, before letting me in. U-oh. Pause to think. Nothing came up. "I can't", I say. "The camera, please", he repeats, in a more serious tone. "Sorry, sir, but I cannot give you my camera". "Why? What is in there?" he asks. "Personal pictures", I try. "Personal?" "Yes, personal, private". "I need your camera. What are those photos?" The tension was pretty noticeable. Ali, without knowing what to do, with his eyes open wide, didn't blink and did not move a muscle. The other men seemed to be waiting for an order. As for me, I don't remember well, but I think that in the absence of a better option, I just started to whistle mentally, looking around and conveying the unspoken message that the Hezbollah guy should not touch that or he would need to wash his hands forever. Ali looks scared. And then the Hezbollah man insists again, "Give me that camera". At that point I was not mentally whistling anymore. I became afraid that I could be dealing with an Islamic fundamentalist who, lacking the grounds to accuse me of being an Israeli spy, would arrest me for indecent exposure. He insisted: "What are those pictures?" Ali looked at me. I looked at Ali. We all looked at each other. I couldn't bear the suspense anymore and shot: "I have pictures of myself, naked". Shock. Silence. I begun to feel sorry for Ali. But that's when I had the big surprise: the Hezbollah official puts his hand over his heart, apologises and says I can keep the camera. "But give me your phone", he says. The machine, not the number. I did.<br /><br />Yet my nightmare was far from over. Ali and I were taken to a corridor with several doors, all with a number on it and at the same distance from each other. I didn't like it. The Hezbollah official opens one of them. It was a tiny room, something like 2m x 1.5m, with a mirror covering one of the walls, two small speakers close to the ceiling, a simple plastic stool facing the mirror and an accessory that somehow triggered my fear: an ashtray. "Come in", the man says, politely, like someone inviting a guest in. "No, thanks, I will wait here", I answer, like a guest who doesn't want to impose. "No, no, sit down". "No thanks, I am fine here". "Madame, you have to sit down". "But I don't want to". I could see Ali sweating cold. Someone comes and tells him something. He turns to me and says, "Please enter, Paula, it's better". I do, and as soon as I step in the door is shut and locked behind me. Ali was also locked in another room. Seeing that the situation was irreversible, I sat down and tried to relax. I begun singing a bossa-nova in Arabic, which despite the strangeness of the language, is probably the most beautiful version ever recorded of Sabia, from Chico and Tom, transformed in Min Zaman by the Lebanese Paul Salem. But I had forgotten the lyrics and preferred to stop singing, afraid I would say something wrong (like the day I was searching for a restaurant called Saiah, a proper name, and ended up asking where was the restaurant "Sahioun". Facing the most puzzled look in the world, someone was kind enough to tell me that there would hardly be a restaurant in Lebanon called "Zionist". Despite all the odds, there is indeed one - Sahioun is also a family name.) And the life in the cubicle was boring. I didn't have much to do. I looked at myself in the mirror. I stared and stared. I got tired of my face and, in the interminable infinite of the next minutes, I started making funny faces in the mirror, in case there was someone behind it as bored as I was. While I made funny faces and saw nothing beyond that, everything was fine. But then from behind the mirror a door opened and, with the light that got in, I managed to see two guys laughing like malignant gargoyles, bwaahahaha – that, of course, was my mind reinterpreting what was certainly inoffensive laughter, provoked by my own funny faces. But the mind is something really fascinating, and a mind with fear is even more so. In a matter of seconds, I remembered the most sordid details of the book "An Evil Cradling", the real story of a professor in the American University of Beirut who was kidnapped during the civil war by a shiia movement (not Hezbollah, probably Islamic Jihad in Lebanon). In captivity for four years, Keenan was used as exchange currency between fundamentalists groups and foreign governments involved in the civil war. In one of the most terrorising passages, the author is approached by one of the wardens. Kind and nice, the guardian asks Keenan to teach him English. Happy to have a<br />purpose and make a friend in the solitude of that dungeon, Brian Keenan teaches English to his captor everyday. But the same man who was so docile during the day comes at night to Keenan's cell and, with a voice forcefully different, screams at his captive saying things like "you, aids, fuck, America satan" while beating the hell out of Brian Keenan. When I saw those two gargoyles laughing, the whole thing came to my mind and I had only reaction: I started hitting the door with my hands, so hard and frantic that they started to bleed. I transferred the task to the feet, kicking the door while screaming "moukhabaratak khara" – your intelligence service sucks. Under a lot of stress, silly me started to 'threaten' Hezbollah, saying that from then on they would have me as an enemy. I certainly didn't scare anyone and at that point the gargoyles may have been rolling on the floor with laughter, but after eternal ten minutes (yes, it was only that), the door opened and the man returned with my telephone, apologising, again with his hand over his heart, bowing in a sign of respect. And I, like a child who realises that someone else realised she fell down, finally begun to cry.<br /><br />According to Amal-Saad Ghorayeb, a scholar in the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and author of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Hezbollah: Politics and Religion,</span> one of the best-selling books about the group, "Hezbollah does not pursue religious objectives but strategic, political and social ones". Indeed, the Party of God is more rational than its name suggests. And it is hard to see this rationality outside of Lebanon. One of the quaintest religious celebrations in the world is the Ashoura, when the Shiia commemorate the assassination of Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammed, in 680. Every year, shiia followers gather in several cities in the Middle East and simulate Hussein's suffering in a ritual of self-flagellation. In Nabatieh, south of Lebanon, the spectacle is more grotesque than in places like Iraq, and it is reserved for those who have no problem with someone else's blood. Men of different ages, including children, queue up to have their forehead cut by a knife, generally with one single strike, in a part of the forehead from where the blood spurts more easily. The blood bath is supposed to denote faith, but what I really noticed was the good old macho exhibitionism taking a form I had not seen yet – the more the blood, the bigger the pride. What many people don't know is that, despite being an old shiia tradition, every year the leader Hassan Nasrallah goes on TV and, condemning the ritual, tells the Shiia followers the same thing: he recommends that instead of wasting blood, people donate it to hospitals.<br /><br />In a country where critical thinking and religious dogma walk together, though avoiding the same sidewalk, extreme contradictions happen even in areas where the residents share the same religion. Baalbeck, a predominantly shiia city where Hezbollah has the majority of the votes, is looking more and more like Iran, and women cover themselves with the chador. In the town that boasts the largest temple in the world dedicated to Bacchus, it is hard to find alcohol beyond the Palmira Hotel, and drug consumption is seen as anathema, even of the local hashish, the famous Red Lebanese – in the good old times, hashish export was one of the biggest source of foreign currency in Lebanon. Today, with hashish production all but forbidden by the United States through the pressure of entities like USAID and the World Bank, plus the threat of being included in lists like the Axis of Evil, Lebanon is destroying its plantations – and poverty keeps on increasing. The produce that replaced hashish, among them the tomato, unfortunately doesn't fetch the same price per kilo. (Meanwhile, in America there are already 12 states where the medical consumption of cannabis is legal, and in at least one of them, New Mexico, a recent law determines that the state itself plant and distribute the cannabis). For the Lebanese economist Marwan Iskandar, "it seems a bit perplexing that Lebanon has to abandon growing hashish to please the US and UN authorities over a restriction that has become debatable (…). While Lebanese farmers suffer loss of income, hashish smokers in the US, the UK, Holland and other European countries enjoy the produce of Turkey and Afghanistan". But notwithstanding the US and Hezbollah, one can still get hashish in Baalbeck, even if it is hard to find the rolling paper – hard, that is, to the uninitiated. To evade the whistleblowers and the nosy, hash consumption created a small anomaly that may be making knots in the heads of some Japanese executives.<br /><br />As an homage to god (god Bacchus), a group of friends went out to find rolling paper. I went with them. In the car, one of them, a resident of Baalbeck, insisted that we searched for a pharmacy or supermarket. I found it strange, since rolling paper in Lebanon is bought from petrol stations and newsstands (the Brazilian Aleda, transparent, is the best selling paper in many places). Stopping by a supermarket, my friend chose not to leave the car but insisted: you can ask for the paper, they have it. We asked the cashier and, without looking at us, he pointed at the cosmetics shelf. We were intrigued, looking at the shelf and seeing nothing. Noticing we were not locals, the cashier came closer and took from the shelf the most unlikely rolling paper I have ever seen, after the pages of the New Testament: a little pack by Shiseido with a wad of "oil blotting paper", a rice paper that absorbs excessive oil from the skin without messing the makeup. The Shiseido executives must be having smoke coming out of their brains trying to figure out how such product would sell so well precisely in an area where so many women chose to wear the chador.<br /><br /><br />Hashish is used practically in the whole Middle East region. There are no statistics but one can find hash with ease in places like Egypt, and even in Saudi Arabia. In Lebanon, during the civil war hash became currency used to buy weapons from Israeli soldiers who occupied some areas in the country. One of the stories I know was told by a former member of the Christian militia Lebanese Forces. In one of his dealings to buy and sell weapons, he was left with a brick-size piece of hash. With so much abundance, the guy threw a party in his chalet in the mountains, turned on the fireplace and, as he was not a smoker himself, placed the hash brick among the wood, burning more than two kilos of the drug in one go. Last summer, one of the complaints of the Israeli youth during the war was that hashish had disappeared from Israel – during its conflict with Lebanon, drug smuggling between the two countries was stopped. But stories of the war are rarely so harmless. One of them is so extraordinary that it seems to have been made up – but it hasn't.<br /><br />In Marjayoun, a mostly Christian village in the south of Lebanon, the situation seemed awful for General Adnan Daoud in August 2006. Near the border with Israel, with missiles and rockets flying over his head, the general led a small military-police joint force that could barely protect itself, let alone the local residents. A few days from the end of the conflict, the post of General Daoud was invaded by the Israeli army in what would still become one of the most surreal stories of the latest war. Under the threat of a military power infinitely bigger than his, and incapable of defending his troops, the general didn't hesitate: when he was invaded, he applied what the Lebanese do best, the hospitality, and served tea to the invaders. Inviting the Israelis to come in, the general showed them that there were no Hezbollah guerrillas in the place, and that his arsenal was practically harmless. But the civility was not reciprocated – nor the honesty.<br /><br />According to accounts of the Israeli soldiers themselves confirming Daoud's version, the general's hospitality was going to be rewarded: around 3,000 refugees and soldiers would be able to leave the town in safety, in a convoy that would leave from a specific place and time. Despite the agreement, in an outcome that many Arabs see as a lesson about the Israeli style, the convoy followed the pre-determined route at the right time, but even then was bombarded by the Israeli Air Force, killing at least seven people and hurting dozens. But Daoud's drama was far from over. Adding insult to injury, the Israeli visitors, ill-mannered, had filmed the Lebanese hospitality and showed the scenes to the whole world. In utter disgrace, Daoud saw himself showing the premises and serving tea to the invaders. Daoud was arrested, and policemen that did not even participate in the story had to swallow for a long time the humiliation of having cars passing by their station and people screaming from the window "Can I have some tea, please".<br /><br />But Israel, despite being the only country officially in a state of war with Lebanon, is not its only enemy. Since 2005, politicians who had previously had an unctuous relationship with Syria begun to resent the neighbour's power and its intrusion in local politics – till then, practically no politician could be elected in Lebanon without the blessings of the Assad family, which has been ruling Syria for the past 37 years. The group's major demand became the withdrawal of Syrian troops, which had been stationed in the country since the civil war with the consent of Lebanon, which needed an external power to protect the Lebanese against the Lebanese. Rafiq Hariri, the billionaire who was five times prime-minister, responsible for a large part of the debt and corruption in the country but also for its post-war reconstruction, decided to head the anti-Syrian movement. In February 2005, with a blast that broke windows in buildings two kilometres away from the scene, 300 kg of explosives killed Hariri and at least 20 other people. After that, other politicians and journalists opposed to Syria were killed, usually in car-bomb explosions, one of them gunned down in broad daylight, in the middle of traffic. I asked Saad Hariri, the son who inherited his father political sceptre, if he saw any possibility, albeit remote, that<br />Syria was not responsible for those crimes. "No", he said. "All the people assassinated followed the same political line. Maybe the tool was different, but the source was the same". The last victim was murdered in June. The government, which still has a small majority in parliament, has its members hiding somewhere – if three more die, the government loses its majority and may be toppled.<br /><br />Since Hariri's assassination Lebanon has been divided, despite the supposed union resulted from the war with Israel. To explain in a simple way a question that is beyond complicated, on one side of the divide there is the government, in its majority Christian and Sunni Muslim, which after the withdrawal of the Syrian troops has been demanding the disarming of Hezbollah. On the other side there is Hezbollah, Syria, and some Christian parties allied more out of political convenience than ideology. According to Hezbollah's rhetoric, the opposition alleges that the army doesn't have the power to defend Lebanon against an Israeli attack, and therefore Hezbollah's weapons are justified. They are also against the International Tribunal that will try the suspects of Rafiq Hariri's assassination and of the other politicians and journalists, adversaries of the Syrian regime. The government accuses the opposition of playing the game of Syria and Iran, the biggest supporter of Hezbollah. The opposition accuses the government of following orders from America and Israel. Last year, tension increased when sympathisers of the opposition camped in downtown Beirut .<br /><br />Since December 1st, hundreds of tents and hundreds of Hezbollah members changed the layout of downtown Beirut. Camped in front of the prime-minister's office, they demand a new government in which the opposition would have more power in order to, among other things, vetoed the creation of the international tribunal. Months after a war with Israel that left more than 1,200 dead, destroyed more than 80 bridges, several telecommunications antennas, exploded water reservoirs and polluted the beaches with oil spills, the occupation of downtown Beirut is another blow against the Lebanese economy. Full with bars, cafes, shops and nightclubs, the capital's centre is one of the biggest attractions for rich Gulf tourists. After the 9/11 attacks, Arab tourists who ceased to be welcome in Europe and United States come to Lebanon to spend their money, fomenting an industry that until recently was Lebanon's third largest source of foreign income.<br /><br />Today, downtown Beirut is practically dead, and that is more owed to Hezbollah than Israel – so says Michael Karam, editor of Executive Magazine, one of the best-selling English-written business magazines in the Middle East . According to Karam, "Since the occupation of downtown by Hezbollah sympathisers, 80 commercial establishments have been closed". According to Paul Ariss, president of the Restaurant and Nightclub Owners Association, 30 of those businesses closed permanently. As soon as Hezbollah militants started to replace tourists, an ideological war started. This time, the weapon was the billboard.<br /><br />In the advertising war that took place, sympathisers of the government and the opposition started to spread billboards around the city. Using the heart sign to replace the verb 'to love', the two sides were fighting to prove who loves Lebanon and life the most – or who can spend more money claiming so. "I love life", says the pro-government billboard, alluding to the supposed ease with which Hezbollah members give their lives for the party's cause. "I love life – with dignity", retorted Hezbollah. The pro-government executives then tried to clarify their concept of life: "I have school", "I am going to work", "I want to go out", said the billboards. "I love life without foreign interference", insisted Hezbollah, accusing the government of extra-marital relations with the West while forgetting its own affair with Iran and Syria. According to Eli Khoury, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Levant and founder of the pro-government campaign, "we are independent, but we cannot afford the luxury to be neutral". More than 1.2 million dollars have been spent in a war so full of love that was becoming nauseating. The campaign inspired other people and, professing a less elevated love, shops and other businesses started to make their own billboards like "I love carpet", "I love jewellery". Lebanese with a knack for creativity, and without political affiliation, printed their own posters with the photo of politicians and religious leaders from all parties and, above the pictures, the line "I love life – without them". And to prove that Lebanon is a country where Socratian wisdom may bump into people all the time, even I started admitting a love that, years ago, I would only have professed under torture. In a country where almost all levels of the government are divided by religion, and where the army is practically the only institution where all religions are fighting together for a common cause, I painted my own t-shirt: "I love the Lebanese army". Walking by the seaside corniche, passing by people of all colours and beliefs, I hear, even if timidly, Lebanese of unknown religions yelling back "me too".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-13173526818839772652008-03-18T12:50:00.001+02:002008-03-22T21:20:18.439+02:00<h3>Bem-Vindo ao Libano - Parte 4/4</h3><br /><br /><script>bedocument.write;</script> <object codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" id="embedded_flash_2303049_gvnjx_object" name="embedded_flash_2303049_gvnjx_object" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" align="middle" height="500" width="100%"><param name="flashvars" value="&document_id=2303049&access_key=key-vyhcirpr5bf0makn4ub&page=&version=1"> <param name="movie" value="http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="play" value="true"> <param name="loop" value="true"> <param name="scale" value="showall"> <param name="wmode" value="opaque"> <param name="devicefont" value="false"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"> <param name="menu" value="true"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"> <param name="salign" value=""> <embed flashvars="&document_id=2303049&access_key=key-vyhcirpr5bf0makn4ub&page=&version=1" src="http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" play="true" loop="true" scale="showall" wmode="opaque" devicefont="false" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="embedded_flash_2303049_gvnjx_object" menu="true" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" salign="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" align="middle" height="500" width="100%"></embed> </object><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/view.js"></script><div id="embedded_flash_2303049_gvnjx" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;"><span style="display: none;">Read this doc on Scribd: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/2303049/BemVindo-ao-Libano-4">Bem-Vindo ao Libano 4</a></span> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var scribd_doc = new scribd.Document(2303049, 'key-vyhcirpr5bf0makn4ub'); scribd_doc.write('embedded_flash_2303049_gvnjx');</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6418219088471513740.post-25156021273482056252008-03-17T20:17:00.001+02:002008-03-22T21:24:24.838+02:00<h3>Bem-Vindo ao Libano - Parte 1/4</h3><br /><br /><script>document.write('<noscript>');</script> <object codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" id="embedded_flash_2297806_1cd2zr_object" name="embedded_flash_2297806_1cd2zr_object" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" align="middle" height="500" width="100%"><param name="flashvars" value="&document_id=2297806&access_key=key-1h66doglkwfk6niv1ac5&page=&version=1"> <param name="movie" value="http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="play" value="true"> <param name="loop" value="true"> <param name="scale" value="showall"> <param name="wmode" value="opaque"> <param name="devicefont" value="false"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"> <param name="menu" value="true"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"> <param name="salign" value=""> <embed flashvars="&document_id=2297806&access_key=key-1h66doglkwfk6niv1ac5&page=&version=1" src="http://documents.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" play="true" loop="true" scale="showall" wmode="opaque" devicefont="false" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="embedded_flash_2297806_1cd2zr_object" menu="true" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" salign="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" align="middle" height="500" width="100%"></embed> </object></noscript><script type="text/javascript" src='http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/view.js'></script><div id='embedded_flash_2297806_1cd2zr' style="width:100%;height:100%"><span style="display:none">Read this doc on Scribd: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/2297806/BemVindo-ao-Libano-1">Bem-Vindo ao Libano 1</a></span> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> var scribd_doc = new scribd.Document(2297806, 'key-1h66doglkwfk6niv1ac5'); scribd_doc.write('embedded_flash_2297806_1cd2zr');</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0