Power and Glory Introduction: So Many Unanswered Questions

The Power and the Glory

Pgs. 7-30

September 4, 2007

7:30 P.M.

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....I just began reading The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Graham Greene was an English writer from a prominent family of first cousins. His works usually explore modern world and morality issues. An important note which might help us in the understanding of The Power and the Glory novel is the fact that Greene converted to Catholicism in 1926. This came after he began corresponding with his future wife, Vivien Dayrell, a Catholic convert.

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.......At the very beginning, the novel is very disperse. Greene fools the reader into thinking that the story centers around Mr. Tench, a displaced Englishman living in Mexico. Mr. Tench's ether cylinder, Mr. Tench's gold teeth business, Mr. Tench's constant postponement of business, Mr. Tench's poverty, Mr. Tench's priced Japanese drill, Mr. Tench this and that, the reader has no time to think about anything else that happens in the story. Even when he's with the stranger, Greene focuses on Mr. Tench as the main character; the reader knows very little about anybody else. However, as the story progresses we begin making very important connections to the stranger presented in first chapter. After reading the second chapter, the reader can finally make a connection of all the hints and foreshadowing provided in the first chapter.

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......Throughout the first chapter, the stranger is a very ambigous character; however, as the novel progresses the signs clearly point to him as a runaway priest. He is presented to the reader as "a small man dressed in a shabby dark city suit, carrying a small attache case (9)...." The "dark city suit" should raise red flags for the reader; aren't they in Mexico where it's supposed to be hot climate? Why would anyone in their right mind dress so warmly in such hot climate? Just as well, he has brandy, when it's apparent that the government has set a monopolized prohibition of alcohol. Why would he have such priviledge? It is apparent that there is something shady about this character. Another scene which hints at the stranger's possible background, is when child came looking for "the new doctor in town" because "his mother was sick." While Mr. Tench goes to open the door, "the stranger crouched in the rocking-chair, gazing with an effect of prayer, entreaty...(16)" People don't care about religion any more and an atheist sense has filled the population since the government set out to exterminate the Church; why would this person show such signs of faith and devotion when it could threaten his? The reader can assume that if the stranger is a priest; he's probably praying that the police isn't there for him. He doesn't care to defend his beliefs any more, maybe he's been fighting for so long that he doesn't have the strength to continue his battle. It's as if he already gave up running away; he is ready to face the consequences that come along with his beliefs. (In Chapter 2, I made the connection between the stranger and the "whisky priest." The reason why I made this connection was because of the brandy that the stranger had in his possession in Chapter 1.)

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.......Chapter 2 quickly changes scene. The lieutenant and the police chief talk about the purging of the priests. "Something you could almost have called horror moved him when he looked at the white muslin dresses - he remembered the smell of incense in the churches of his boyhood, the candles and teh laciness and the self-esteem, the immense demands made from the altar steps by men who didn't know the meaning of sacrifice. The old peasants knelt there before the holy images with their arms held out in the attitude of the cross: tired by the long day's labour in the plantations they squeezed out a further mortification. And the priest came round with the collecting-bag taking their centavos, abusing them for their small comforting sins, and sacrificing nothing at all in return - except a little sexual indulgence (22-23)." The lieutenant is part of the general population: he is an average citizen. The author is probably trying to portray the general sentiment towards religion: the resentment, the hatred, and the blame. People view the Church as something evil, something selfish. The Church doesn't truly care about its followers, all it cares about is the money they can gain, the "centavos" they can steal from the hardworking and tortured peasants. These poor beings, guided by ignorance, complementing the plantation torture with moral guilt. The way the author portrays its harsh reality.

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.....However, what's ironic about this point of view is that just a few pages back the author mentions the end of a school. "...the Syndicate of Workers and Peasants had once been a school. He had helped wipe out that unhappy memory. The whole town had changed...(24)" Doesn't ignorance feed the faith that keeps religion afloat? More educated people question religion, don't they? Scholars and scientist are usually atheist because religion and knowledge clash. If there is knowledge then religion cannot feed its followerd whatever they say as a truth. Knowledge helps question the basic of foundations of religion. With all this said, then why would they want to end education? The only answer that I could find from my interpretation of the text, was because the government is actually trying to take the place of the religion. "There was something of a priest in his intent observant walk - a theologian going back over the errors of the past to destroy them again (24)." They are replacing religion, fixing all its flaws with the government. Finally, the government will have no competition in order to control its people. No one can question them and there won't be a power struggle with the Church anymore. What the government dictates as right goes. Now the people will turn to the government for answers, not to religion.

Some Vocabulary:

attache

protuberant

garrulous

bile

ewer

puttee

gaiters

dapper

muslin

jowl

trite

mondstic

contrition

petering

buffoon

The Emperor and The Soccer War: A Recurring Theme

September 22, 2007

3:15 AP.M.

.....The Emperor, another work by Ryszard Kapuscinski, deals with Haile Selassie's coup in Ethoipia. Kapuscinski was present before and after the coup occurred in Ethiopia, and his book portrays the before and after situation in the country. However, the situations are portrayed through and based on Haile Selasssie; after the coup, Kapuscinski collected accounts and information from the dictator's closest companions.

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Excerpt from The Emperor:.

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The Emperor threw an imposing reception for the meeting of the presidents. Wine and caviar were flown in from Europe specially for the occasion. At a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars, Miram Makeba was brought from Hollywood to serenade the leaders with Zulu songs after the feast. All told, more than three thousand people, divided hierarchically into upper and lower categories, were invited. Each category received invitations of a different color and chose from a different menu.

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The reception took place in the Emperor's Old Palace. The guests passed long ranks of soldiers from the Imperial Guard, armed with sabers and halberds. From atop towers, spotlit trumpeters played the Emperor's fanfare. In the galleries, theatrical troupes performed scenes from the lives of past Emperors. From the balconies, girls in folk costumes showered the guests with flowers. The sky exploded in plumes of fireworks.

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When the guests had been seated at tables in the great hall, fanfares rang out and the Emperor walked in with President Nasser of Egypt at his right hand. They formed an extraordinary pair. Nasser, a tall, stocky, imperious man, his head thrust forward with his wide jaws set into a smile, and next to him the diminutive silhouette - frail, one could almost say - of Haile Selassie, worn by the years, with his thin, expressive face, his glistening, penetrating eyes. Behind them the remaining leaders entered in pairs. The audience rose; everyone was applauding. Ovations sounded for unity and the Emperor. Then the feast began. There was one dark-skinned wiater for every four guests. Out of excitement and nervousness, things were falling from the waiters' hands. The table setting was silver, in the old Harar style. Several tons of priceless antique silver lay on those tables. Some people slipped pieces of silverware into their pockets. One sneaked a fork, the next one a spoon.

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Mountains of meat, fruit, fish, and cheese rose on the tables. Many-layered cakes dripped with sweet, colored icing. Distinguished wines spread reflected colors and invigorating aromas. The music played on, and costumed clowns did somersaults to the delight of the carefree revelers. Time passed in conversation, laughter, consumption.

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It was a splendid affair.

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During these proceedings, I needed to find a quiet place, but I didn't know where to look. I left the Great Chamber by a side door that led outside. It was a dark night, with a fine rain falling. A May rain, but a chilly one. A gentle slop led down from the door, and some distance below stood a poorly lit building without walls. A row of waiters stood in a line from the door to this building, passing dishes with leftovers from the banquet table. On those dishes a stream of bones, nibbled scraps, mashed vegetables, fish heads, and cut-away bits of meat flowed. I walked toward the building without walls, slipping on the mud and scattered bits of food.

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I noticed that something on the other side was moving, shifting, murmuring, squishing, sighing, and smacking its lips. I turned the corner to have a closer look.

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In the thick night, a crowd of barefoot beggars stood huddled together. The dishwashers working in the building threw leftovers to them. I watched the crowd devour the scraps, bones, and fish heads with laborious concentration. In the meticulous absorption of this eating there was an almost violent biological abandon -- the satisfaction of hunger in anxiety and ecstasy.From time to time the waiters would get held up, and the flow of dishes would stop. Then the crowd of beggars would relax as though someone had given them the order to stand at ease. People wiped their lips and straightened their muddy and food-stained rags. But soon the stream of dishes would start flowing again -- because up there the great hogging, with smacking of lips and slurping, was going on, too -- and the crowd would fall again to its blessed and eager labor of feeding.

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I was getting soaked, so I returned to the Great Chamber to the Imperial party. I looked at the silver and gold on the scarlet velvet, at President Kasavuba, at my neighbor, a certain Aye Mamlaye. I breathed in the scent of roses and incense, I listened to the suggestive Zulu song that Miriam Makeba was singing, I bowed to the Emperor (an absolute requirement of protocol), and I went home.

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.....In this excerpt, I see a similar theme as in The Soccer War: the splendor, luxury, and waste of the very powerful and elite while the large majority of the country struggles to survive. Kapuscinski effectively parallels the opposing themes of glutonery with starvation, and of excess with utter poverty. Through this parallel, he is able to demonstrate and emphasize the injustice of the class struggle and the paradoxes of society without blatantly condemning them.

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.....With a journalistic flare, and in the way of Charles Dickens, Kapuscinski hides his bias by presenting fiercely contrasting parallel situations. Neither in "The Soccer War" nor in "The Emperor" does he speak any bias terms; yet through this contrasting parallelism and through bitter, satirical, descriptions he demonstrates the foul, opulent nature of social inequity. He does not openly condemn the fact that just outside such opulent pary there stands a herd of faceless men, standing in "anxiety and ecstasy". We do not see the faces of the "barefoot beggars"; in fact they seem visageless, begging for the scraps and leftovers of fat, lavishly endowed men thet are ignorant of their condition. As a self respecting reporter always must do, Kapuscinski displays only the facts. He does not show more disgust or pity for the beggars than do the waiters who have seen that their entire lives. However, through contrasting the light and pomp of the party inside with the "thick night" and cold "May rain" of the oustide , Kapuscinski makes it evident that he does not approve. Inside, "mountains of meat, fruit, fish, and cheese" lie on silver adorned mantels while a $25,000 Zuni interpreter sings and dances. Through the narrow doorway, and down a slope adorned with "mud and scattered bits of food" stand the pack of hungry men. They have been eviscerated to feed the insatiable men inside, and they now anxiously devour what was ripped from them to ease the piercing pain of hunger.

....Meanwhile, The Soccer War portrays a gigantic citadel. Built for a 4 day visit of diplomatic visitors, it holds ridiculous amounts of overstock and security. Its price ranged around 20 million dollars "at a time when it was hard to buy bread in the city". This is the only direct connotation to poverty that Kapuscinski makes, but it is enough to demonstrate his point. By following up with descriptions of the lavish ten room, two bathroom suites. Now, unless the African diplomats were thinking of bringing their entire extended families with them for a four day meeting, the ten rooms are satirically extravagant. What Kapuscinski most emphasizes, however, is the security in place inside the citadel. Built like a "russian grandmother", impeding any medium or light artillery fire. For heavy artillery, they built "massive underground shelters" stocked "with enough food to last several months". And all this has been "locked up and now stands empty". Why else would such an extravagant facility need such extravagant security were it not for deep social unrest? The only thing anyone would break in there for would be to steal some of the rotting disaster provisions. Thus, once again, Kapuscinski uses subtle opposing parallels to demonstrate the strong social divisions and unnecessary excesses of lavishness. He satirically demonstrates an abandoned building large enough and well stocked enough to provide decent homes for hundreds of empoverished Accra residents. By doing this, he once again creates an image of disgust, of how the well-endowed buy and dispose while others struggle to simply buy a piece of bread; and he does it without a word of bias.

....In both works Kapuscinski demonstrates, with journalistic expository skill, his severe disgust with the opulence and waste of African high society. While their country rots of AIDS and famine they make lavish parties and build useless, immense buildindgs to lock up.

Email Response to Kapuscinski's Article By Andrew Rice

September 20, 2007

5:26 P.M.

Dear Mr. Rice,
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.....I agree with you when you state that Kapuscinski was not a national spy, but his role as an international correspondent made him into one. ("All journalism is a kind of spycraft, which is one reason intelligence agencies everywhere try to recruit foreign correspondents.") He covered many events in world history and had first accounts of these events; by having this information he was immediately a spy, a different kind of spy. He wasn't a clandestine spy, people knew that he was a reporter and his job was to inform what was happening. His news reports could count as spy work; after all he was informing people of his country about the occurrences in another country.

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.....It's quite ironic, actually; today in my English class we talked about Kapuscinski as a character and person. He is an "invisible outsider." He was an elusive writer, like you say, always vanishing before his true revelation. However, I have to argue that this was part of his craft. As a journalist and a reporter, you need to stay away from real emotions in order to provide your reader and audience with unbiased facts. All his job required him was to report facts and events, not what he felt. He was taught to write and present his ideas in a specific way, and this clearly reflects in his writing, although there are parts when the reader can see Kapuscinski as just another human being.

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.....Just as well, this previous point also accounts for the lack of deep political analysis. Newspapers are meant for a very broad audience, some of which isn't always very academic. Uneducated people need to be able to understand the newspaper also; newspapers need to assume that someone who isn't very instructed in a certain subject needs to understand what's going on. If Kapuscinski went very deep into technical details and very big words about what was going on, then average readers would not understand the newspaper. Although, his novels are also written this way, I have to argue that this was because Kapuscinski mastered the art of journalism greatly. He was used to this writing style, and he wanted the man next door to be able to understand what war was like. He wanted to portray his adventures and lessons learned in a very simple manner, so that people could at least grasp something from his horrifying accounts of war.

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......When you question Kapuscinski's actual accounts as real or imaginary, I have to completely agree with you. All writers use their imagination to some point, don't they, of course, some more than others. Many writers feel that they need to polish the details or fix the ruffles on the dress before going on stage. They need to add flowery detail in order to make a reader interested; if there was no such details and comic relief, then it would be too much for the reader to handle. I mean humanity lives in a bubble; we always expect a better side to war, don't we (well to everything really)? Kapuscinski shouldn't be punished for using his imagination, but with this said the reader needs to be aware of what to believe will he/she reads. Kapuscinski should be praised for recognizing this human flaw, and trying to incorporate it so the reader can see some truth in it.

....I'm looking forward to reading more of Kapuscinski's novel, and making the connection that you did about completing a circle. This is very probable as Kapuscinski was a very mysterious character and writer.

Thanks,

Daniela Cleves

NY Times Op-ed Article: The High Cost of Ethanol

The High Costs of Ethanol

Editorial

Published: September 19, 2007

(PATHOS, LOGOS, ETHOS)

Backed by the White House, corn-state governors and solid blocks on both sides of Congress’s partisan divide, the politics of biofuels could hardly look sunnier. The economics of the American drive to increase ethanol in the energy supply are more discouraging.

American corn-based ethanol is expensive. And while it can help cut oil imports and provide modest reductions in greenhouse gases compared to conventional gasoline, corn ethanol also carries considerable risks. Even now as Europe and China join the United States in ramping up production, world food prices are rising, threatening misery for the poorest countries.

The European Union has announced that it wants to replace 10 percent of its transport fuel with biofuels by 2020. China is aiming for a 15 percent share. The United States is already on track to exceed Congress’s 2005 goal of doubling the amount of ethanol used in motor fuels to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. In his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush set a new goal of 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017. In June, the Senate raised it to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Of that, Congress said that 15 billion gallons should come from corn and 21 billion from advanced biofuels that are nowhere near commercial production.

The distortions in agricultural production are startling. Corn prices are up about 50 percent from last year, while soybean prices are projected to rise up to 30 percent in the coming year, as farmers have replaced soy with corn in their fields. The increasing cost of animal feed is raising the prices of dairy and poultry products.

The news from the rest of the world is little better. Ethanol production in the United States and other countries, combined with bad weather and rising demand for animal feed in China, has helped push global grain prices to their highest levels in at least a decade. Earlier this year, rising prices of corn imports from the United States triggered mass protests in Mexico. The chief of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising food prices around the world have threatened social unrest in developing countries.

A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an economic forum of rich nations, called on the United States and other industrialized nations to eliminate subsidies for the production of ethanol which, the report said, is driving up food costs, threatening natural habitats and imposing other environmental costs. “The overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel,” it said.

The economics of corn ethanol have never made much sense. Rather than importing cheap Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane, the United States slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on ethanol from Brazil. Then the government provides a tax break of 51 cents a gallon to American ethanol producers — on top of the generous subsidies that corn growers already receive under the farm program.

Corn-based ethanol also requires a lot of land. An O.E.C.D. report two years ago suggested that replacing 10 percent of America’s motor fuel with biofuels would require about a third of the total cropland devoted to cereals, oilseeds and sugar crops.

Meanwhile, the environmental benefits are modest. A study published last year by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, estimated that after accounting for the energy used to grow the corn and turn it into ethanol, corn ethanol lowers emissions of greenhouse gases by only 13 percent.

The United States will not meet the dual challenges of reducing global warming and its dependence on foreign suppliers of energy until it manages to reduce energy consumption. That should be its main goal.

There is nothing wrong with developing alternative fuels, and there is high hope among environmentalists and even venture capitalists that more advanced biofuels — like cellulosic ethanol — can eventually play a constructive role in reducing oil dependency and greenhouse gases. What’s wrong is letting politics — the kind that leads to unnecessary subsidies, the invasion of natural landscapes best left alone and soaring food prices that hurt the poor — rather than sound science and sound economics drive America’s energy policy.

Taken from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/opinion/19wed1.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Editorials


Logos: argument by reasoning, logic

Examples in article:

Paragraph 4: This paragraph tells how biodiesel production has caused soaring prices in agriculture. The production is completely distortioned, while animal feed and dairy products are becoming more and more expensive. A cause and an effect.

Paragraph 5: This paragraph is very similar to the previous paragraph; however, it relates to other parts of the world. It's a cause and effect: because of biodiesel, then the world situation worsens.

Paragraph 3: Talks about the consequences of increased biodiesel production. However, the writer thinks that such production is not near commercial production capabilities.

Paragraph 6: This paragraph shows how increased production means worldwide inflation of food pricing.

Paragraphs 9 and 10: These paragraphs minimize the effect that biodiesel has on global warming.

Pathos: argument by emotions

Examples in article:

Paragraph 1: The article mentions how the prospect for American economics due to biodiesel isn't very positive. This really instills some fear into the consumer, why would they risk a good economy just for a different source of fuel?

Paragraph 2: By implying that biodiesel is expensive, the reader will immediately not agree with it. The more expensive the more customers will have to pay out of their pocket. Just as well, the article mentions the growing misery and rising food prices for developing countries.

Paragraphs 6, 7, and 8: These paragraphs generates hatred and dislike for the biodiesel industry. The writer argues that biodiesel production increase prices as well as misery in developing countries. And for the nation, it means making way for corn crops, which would leave many unemployed.

Ethos: argument by character

Examples in article:

Paragraph 11: This paragraph shows how human character impedes fair treatment for citizens competing with biodiesel industries. Politicians are always willing to benefit the rich, forgetting to benefit people who really need the subsidies.

Hmm.. Wrapping Loose Ends And A Last Minute Connection

The Soccer War
Pgs. 205-234

September 18, 2007
3:33 P.M.

....Not so long ago, the Berlin wall divided the city of Berlin into two different cities, East Germany and West Germany. This wall was put up in 1961 due to the tensions caused by the Cold War. However, the marked divisions by the two cities had begun right after World War II ended. West Germany was controlled by the United States, while East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. West Germany flourished with a capitalist economy, while East Germany lagged behind (it was rich compared to other Eastern Bloc states, however, never as much as West Germany). As people began to migrate to West Germany because of its prosperity, the Berlin Wall was erected. But how does this connect with The Soccer War?

....During this last section, I made a strong connection to the events taking place in Nicosia, Cyprus to the events that ocurred in Berlin, Germany. Nicosia is divided into two parts, the Greek and the Turkish sides. The border crossing is guarded by one Greek and one Turkish soldier, and the flags of each country stand on its respective side. When I read his narration, I immediately made a connection with the Berlin Wall. What's so shocking about these two events is how discord between two countries could rip apart neighbors, communities, and citizens. They were two parallel events taking place in very similar times. I mean why are these two alien countries deciding what to do in another one. It just wasn't fair to the citizens of Berlin or Nicosia.The people of the city should be the ones deciding whether they want to be two cities or one.

....This last part ties back to the question asked in class: Who is supposed to be political responsible? Who should make political decisions concerning the people? No one should make your own decisions; we need to opiniate and decide for ourselves. The people are the ones that vote, and we need to take that responsibility seriously. Citizens have the biggest political responsability; they are the ones that are supposed make the calls. Many people disagree with this argument, because we don't take that responsability seriously. People don't use this responsability to their maximum advantage, or don't use it all. Just because a politician is rich, doesn't mean that people can't stand up against him. If everyone practiced political responsability, then people would feel that what they have to say counts for something. People would be heard because bonded together they could overthrow a government and corruption. They could make their ideas come true!

....The Soccer War is a novel that clearly depicts the lack of practiced political responsability in Third World countries (I'm not saying developped countries practice it fully, however; Kapuscinski only talks about the Third World in his novel). If the citizens cared more about their political role, then there wouldn't have been so many revolutions constantly affecting them. If the citizens of the countries mentioned had stood up for the opinions and what they believed was right, then they could have prevented much bloodshed. The citizens of a country need to let their government know what they want and what they expect to be done; a government can't have the freedom to do as it pleases. If a government is allowed this freedom, then it will exploit it for its own interest, forgetting completely about the needs of the people they rule.

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.....So I finished reading The Soccer War I really liked the novel. I loved Kapuscinski's writing style, easy going yet complex. He wanted the reader to convey everything that he lived through, and to come up with their own conclusions about the Third World. He presented the novel in a journalistic way, yet, throughout the book he was able to separate opinion from fact. It was so shocking to see the crude reality drowing Third World countries. It was really shocking to me how war and poverty are a cycle which maintains the Third World struggling to survive; it's as if they will never be able to escape their fate.

Boots

The Soccer War
pg. 184-204

September 17, 2007
5:56 P.M.

** "...the life of a soldier and the life of a shopkeeper during the war- they existed in two different worlds and they had diffferent problems- one of them was thinking about how to live through another houre, and the other was thinking about how to sell his merchandise, and these are very different worries indeed (202)." This quote fits perfectly with my previous post about how no one really cares about war unless they are the ones fighting it.

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....The last chapter I read was titled Boots. Even though Kapuscinski tricks the reader into thinking that the chapter is about the war between Israel and Syria, Kapuscinski really intends to send an underlying message. When people talk of war, they usually refer to the whole country as being in war; however, wars are only fought by a select group of people, soldiers. Politicians might start them, but the only ones that fight are brave human beings, willing to risk their last breathe for causes which they don't even understand.

....The author uses the boots to tell a story; the boots become a metaphor of the life of a soldier. They are the ones willing to die to save their country and its citizens. The loneliness, the fight without a cause is symbolized by the boots. The boots are there through thick and thin. They accompany a soldier in the middle of the attack, or when he has to go back home. The boots are there for the soldier in the battlefield: when the "mines go off under his feet, [when] bullets whistle through the air, [and] bombs drop from the sky(202)." At the same time, the boots join the soldier at times of peace, at times of calm. Even though a soldier risks his live for his country and for his compatriots, he doesn't get anything in return but a trauma for life. After seeing the bloodshed, the death, and the pain that war causes, no one can return to their normal self; the only thought of all these scenes will hunt anyone for the rest of their lives. "The war wounded everyone, and those who survived cannot cure themselves of it (200)." The boots are meant to show how society takes for granted people that are willing to give up their lives in order to save others.

....Just as well, in this chapter Kapuscinski makes a drastic turn in his writing style. Throughout the book, he has concealed his opinions with the facts, or separated his opinions completely from the facts (in the Plan for the Unwritten Book). However, never has he incorporated his opinion into the facts. Throughout most of the novel, he leaves the space open for the reader to come up with their own assumptions about his feelings. In the last couple of pages of this section he does! He openly critisizes war, and the effects it has on the overall population, as well, as the inability to fight for your country if you aren't at the frontline battling. The reader finally gets a personal insight into this renowned reporter; he leaves his journalistic wall (professionalism) of facts down for a bit. A reporter is just supposed to present the news as facts (unless they are trying to persuade the viewer/reader of their own opinions), and Kapuscinski has accomplished this very well up to this part of the novel.

....I think this is because after two hundred pages he feels desperate. Through two hundred pages, Kapuscinski has kept his professionalism intact, not letting his emotions get in the way of the reader's understanding of the facts. After all the torture endured and bloodshed witnessed, Kapuscinski did the human thing possible in order to deal with all his emotions; he had to let everything out. All his emotions were bottled up inside. It was about time that he let the reader know his emotions about the facts. I'm amazed that he was able to keep it to himself for so long. But bottling up his emotions is what journalism is about (well, a good reporter isn't supposed to the biased as he needs to leave the space open for the reader to come up with their own conclusions). Kapuscinski was very professional, and he should be admired for his wonderful work.

....I absolutely agree with Kapuscinski's views of war; it creates scars that can't be cured for generations afterwards. As for soldiers, his metaphor of boots was very precise.

The Insignificance of a War...

The Soccer War
Pg. 166-184

September 16, 2007
5:00 P.M.


....The Soccer War between Honduras and El Salvador, represented the boiling point of their tensions; finally exploding into a cold blooded war. It's amazing how insignificant this war was to the rest of the world, however. Around the world, the war was known as the Soccer War because of the misconception that it was caused by a soccer match. In reality it was caused by much more than that: Latifundistas driving people away from their lands, an oversized country with not enough population to make up for it, and an overcrowded neighbor with few opportunities for its citizens.

....The world was more concerned about Apollo 11 and its accomplishment than the thousands of lives being lost in Latin America. The world rejoiced at the triumph of reason and how close man was getting to the stars. Lttle did they know, or little did they want to know, that man was getting buried in the ground more than flying to the stars. A similar case was lived by the world with the Cambodian genocide, where in the 1970's, delayed world reponse permitted a cold blooded massacre of hundreds of thousands of people. This apparent apathy for third world suffering in modern times has been fueled by an egocentric nature of the developed countries. American culture has this ideology firmly rooted. Many Americans do not even have passports because of their belief that America is the unquestioned center of the world and there is no need to travel or think about any other place. Globalization has slowly attempted to diverge this trend, and the growth of communication has made ignorance more and more difficult. But the bureaucracy of NGOs and government aid, as well as the unchanging apathy of civil society, has still slowed the process of response and kept the third world bleeding while the first watches MTV.

....War is only lived by its protagonists. No one else wants to get involved because then it will cause disruption to their own emotional stability. As long as the war doesn't affect their own business, then other people don't find the need to get involved. War is something very superficial. You go fight to get whet you want, but is all the blood she'd really worth it? This isn't only true with nations; humans beings do the same thing.

....Kapuscinski makes reference to a dying, twenty year old soldier that was fighting to live after receiving 11 bullet wounds. Everyone around him was more concerned about the fact than an older man would have died immediately but he didn't because he was young, than about who this dying soldier was. This is evidence of the de-humanization of war. This de-humanization is also a cause for the apathy explained previously, and is a metaphor for the growth of a statistic-oriented war. War is in modern times, a statistic. To a certain extent this de-humanization is necessary for a war to happen. A counter example is the movie Joyeux Noel, in which after the soldiers met and celerated Christmas together were unable to shoot each other.