 |
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507 
| ||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
| ||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Satire incarnated
Al-Ahram Weekly asked renowned scholar/activist Noam Chomsky to comment on the American elections. This was his reply
"On the elections, let me remind you of one of my favourite comments by Mark Twain, who apart from being maybe America's most famous writer, is also America's most unknown writer -- in particular, the strong anti-imperialist essays he wrote at the time of the huge United States massacres and atrocities in conquering the Philippines 100 years ago. But this is the home of the free, after all, so it would only be fair to make it clear that they did appear: in 1992, in a publication of a university press that passed without comment, as far as I know (I wrote about it, but that doesn't count).
"To return to the elections, one of the many great mass murderers in the Philippines was a Colonel Funston. Twain tried to write about him, but found that he couldn't, so this is all he managed: "No satire of Funston could reach perfection, because Funston occupies that summit himself ... [he is] satire incarnated." If I had to write about the elections, I'd just quote that comment.
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters © Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
