Aside from Harold Pinter ("Ubugcisa, iNyaniso, kunye nezopolitiko"), how many of the
other nine leading figures of the contemporary European enlightenment
do you suppose would be willing to sign a ileta ethelekisekayo (mutatis
mutandis, of course) denouncing their home states, the 27 member states
of the European Union, and even the United Nations itself, over the
collective failure to lift so much as one little finger in opposition to the
mass deaths and the material and cultural destruction wrought by the
United States of America, as it embargoes, threatens, and militarily invades country after another — most recently Afghanistan and Iraq?
Ndiyathetha, phakathi kwesinye nesithoba, kwaye ngaphandle kwePinter, ngubani ngokuqinisekileyo oya kwenza. Thatha uqikelelo.
Do you suppose that Jürgen Habermas, Václav Havel, or Bernard Henri-Levy would add his name to such a letter? Or Tom Stoppard? Maybe even all four?
What honest person could miss the fact that when this letter "Kwiinkokeli zezizwe ezingama-27 ze-EU" argues that the "Europe which allowed Auschwitz and failed in Bosnia must not tolerate the murder in Darfur," many of the very same Amazwe angamalungu e-EU happen to be engaged on the battlefields of Afghanistan (i.e., NATO), nor has a single one of them shown the independence to stand up to and opt-out of this truly global killing machine.
Ukuba akunjalo ngoku, nini? If not we, who?
You want to talk to me about the "futile posturings" of a "political class"? About the "inherited culture which sustains our shared belief in the value and dignity of the human being"? About courage versus cowardliness? Even about "European civilization"?
Kuthekani ngokugxeka ngokupheleleyo amagcisa kunye neengqondi? Ngapha koko, nina bafana nibonakala nisazi okuninzi ngayo.
Instead why don't you try invoking the specter of real ukuxolisa, qeqesha ubhubhani wakho womsindo kwicala elifanele, kwaye ubize iinkokeli zakho ezingama-27 ukuba ziphume kwi-duffs yazo kwaye zenze okuthile malunga nolawulo lwaseWashington?
Enye into. — Ekwenzeni ubugebenga bayo obuphezulu bezizwe ngezizwe ngokuchasene namanye amazwe, yiSupreme International Criminal ukunikela "European civilization"? Or is it ukuqhubela phambili "European civilization"?
Andikwazi kulinda ukuva impendulo yakho.
And what might the signatories to this open letter on Darfur be advancing? Does anybody suppose that it takes any courage at all to call for sanctions to be imposed upon the leadership in Khartoum?
Magorha am akhaliphileyo!
"Let this action be our gift to ourselves and our proof of ourselves," these eminent witness-bearers and emotional tourists attest.
Kodwa ekutyikityeni esidlangalaleni amagama abo adumileyo kule leta - kwaye akukho nto inokuthelekiswa namanyathelo akhuthazayo ngokuchasene neWashington - luhlobo luni lwe isipho ngaba ngokwenene bayapha?
kwaye iya kubani, ekugqibeleni?
UDavid Peterson
Chicago, eU.SA
Kwiinkokeli zezizwe ezingama-27 ze-EU,How dare we Europeans celebrate this weekend while on a continent some few miles south of us the most defenceless, dispossessed and weak are murdered in Sudan?
Has the European Union – born of atrocity to unite against further atrocity – no word to utter, no principle to act on, no action to take, in order to prevent these massacres in Darfur? Is the cowardliness over Srebrenica to be repeated? If so, what do we celebrate?
The thin skin of our political join?
The futile posturings of our political class?
The impotent nullities of our bureaucracies?
The Europe which allowed Auschwitz and failed in Bosnia must not tolerate the murder in Darfur. Europe is more than a network of the political classes, more than a first world economic club and a bureaucratic excrescence. It is an inherited culture which sustains our shared belief in the value and dignity of the human being. In the name of that common culture and those shared values, we call upon the 27 leaders to impose immediately the most stringent sanctions upon the leaders of the Sudanese regime.
Forbid them our shores, our health service and our luxury goods. Freeze their assets in our banks and move immediately to involve other concerned countries.
We must not once again betray our European civilization by watching and waiting while another civilization in Africa is destroyed.
Let this action be our gift to ourselves and our proof of ourselves. And when it is done, then let us celebrate together with pride.
Umberto Echo
UDario Fo
UGünter Ingca
UJürgen Habermas
IVáclav Havel
Seamus Heaney
Bernard Henri-Levy
UHarold Pinter
UFranca Rame
Indawo yokuma uTom
"Kwiinkokeli zezizwe ezingama-27 ze-EU," Ezizimeleyo, Matshi 24, 2007
"I-EU yasekwa emthunzini weNazism. Kodwa, iminyaka engama-50 ukuya phambili, kufanele kukhunjulwe ukuba ububi busenathi," Tom Stoppard, Ezizimeleyo, Matshi 24, 2007
"Ababhali bahlasela ukusilela kwe-EU ukuphelisa ubundlobongela baseDarfur," Cahal Milmo, Ezizimeleyo, Matshi 24, 2007
"Indlela uGeldof ababongoza ngayo ababhali ukuba baye emfazweni eDarfur," Mary Riddell, Umgcini, Matshi 25, 2007
"Darfur: Europe's leaders respond to demands for action to stop the genocide," Stephen Castle, Ezizimeleyo, Matshi 26, 2007
"Simele sithethelele abafileyo nabalahliweyo kubhubhani womsindo," Tom Stoppard, Ezizimeleyo, Matshi 26, 2007
Gqiba (NgoJuni 27): Fumana umthwalo woku:
"U-Angelina Jolie Ujoyina iBhunga kuBudlelwane baNgaphandle," Mary Green, abantu, UJuni 7, 2007
"U-Angelina ufuna ukusindisa iHlabathi," Sean Smith, Newsweek, UJuni 25, 2007
The first of these requires no comment: The right woman joins the right outfit. In the second, it's bad enough that Newsweek insults us by referring to Jolie as an "unprecedented 21st-century entity, a tabloid star with international credibility, a 'soft news' icon commanding respect in a hard-news world." But we also find the retired U.S. General and recent Secretary of State Colin Powell — the infamous dissembler before the UN Security Council about Iraq's many "izixhobo zokutshabalalisa" programs and the looming threat they pose to the world — telling us that
"She's absolutely serious, absolutely informed," says former secretary of State Colin Powell. "Her work with refugees is not something to decorate herself. She studies the issues." Powell has spoken with Jolie several times over the years, and they've been honored together at benefits for refugee causes. There is, he says, no sanctimony about her. "For her, it's not about saving the world, it's about saving kids," he says. "She doesn't need this. This needed her."
Now. As someone pointed out to me, no matter how "hot" things become in certain spots in this world, there will be no mad rush among "humanitarian" intellectual- and celebrity-types to become crusading spokespeople for a Gcina iGaza campaign on the order of the several "Save Darfur" campaigns now underway (and the like).
Kwaye akufuneki siqashele ukuba zeziphi iintolongo kunye neenkampu zeembacu UNobhala-Jikelele we-UN uBan Ki-moon or Unozakuzaku weZizwe eziManyeneyo uJolie okanye umhambi ongugxa wabo UGeorge Clooney ("If celebrity is a credit card, then I'm using it.") are likely to visit any time soon — and which they Andizu.
Kodwa nangaphantsi kufuneka sicinge ukuba ezi nkwenkwezi ezikwisibhakabhaka samalungelo oluntu ziya kukhanyisa ukukhanya kwazo phezu komhlaba. Gcina i-Iraq iphulo. Okanye a Gcina iAfghanistan.
Yiba nomfanekiso womntu odumileyo ovela e-United States of America esebenzisa amandla akhe eenkwenkwezi ukuphakamisa ulwazi lwabantu kumalungelo oluntu kunye nobubi kwihlabathi liphela, khawube nomfanekiso wakhe ebhala kwiphepha le-op-ed Washington Post that "What the worst people in the world fear most is justice. That's what we should deliver" — but then imagine her directing her rhetoric at the government in Khartoum, rather than the one in Washington!
"Ubulungisa beDarfur," Angelina Jolie, Washington isikhundla, Februwari 28, 2007
So Norman Finkelstein is phandle.
But Goodwill Angelina is in.
I-ZNetwork ixhaswa ngemali kuphela ngesisa sabafundi bayo.
Nikela