Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture: "Art, Truth & Politics"
Sean M. Madden (iNoodle.com) | 09.12.2005 17:18 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Repression
"What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed." ~Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Laureate, Literature
Note: The below article is available with integrated web links via the iNoodle.com blog at the following URL:
http://inoodle.com/2005/12/harold-pinters-nobel-lecture-art-truth.html
Note: The below article is available with integrated web links via the iNoodle.com blog at the following URL:
http://inoodle.com/2005/12/harold-pinters-nobel-lecture-art-truth.html
"What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed." ~Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Laureate, Literature
Please gather family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens to watch, together, this extraordinary Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
What Mr. Pinter says in this 46-minute videotaped lecture should be shouted from rooftops worldwide (particularly within the US and UK, where the message is most urgent), considered in the privacy of our own minds, researched to our heart's content, and discussed everywhere we gather: in our homes, at our workplaces, in the marketplace, in public and private gardens, in places of worship and spirituality, in cafés, bars, pubs and restaurants, on the streets, in town meetings and city halls, in university classrooms and lecture halls, in schoolrooms, on the editorial and op-ed pages of our local and national newspapers, in the blogosphere and other internet meeting places, and on community radio and television programs, until such time as the complicit corporate media is forced to speak truth to the citizenry rather than boldfaced lies on behalf of an anti-democratic corporate-political elite.
Let us carry within us, and communicate to the world, words of truth such that no dark, dank place is left for our war-criminal, corporate politicians and their propagandists to hide. Let us, then, begin to usher in true democracy, in which—for the first time in history—the citizenry, we, are self-respecting and respected, critically educated, and empowered to mature as whole human beings, unshackled, finally, from the corrupting effects of political paternalism.
Due to his presently undergoing cancer treatment, Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video December 7, 2005, in Börssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.
His videotaped lecture is available for both high- and low- bandwidth internet connections. The lecture is also available in text format in the following languages: English, Swedish, French and German.
Click here to access the lecture in these various formats via the official Nobel Prize website.
Sean M. Madden (iNoodle.com)
Please gather family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens to watch, together, this extraordinary Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
What Mr. Pinter says in this 46-minute videotaped lecture should be shouted from rooftops worldwide (particularly within the US and UK, where the message is most urgent), considered in the privacy of our own minds, researched to our heart's content, and discussed everywhere we gather: in our homes, at our workplaces, in the marketplace, in public and private gardens, in places of worship and spirituality, in cafés, bars, pubs and restaurants, on the streets, in town meetings and city halls, in university classrooms and lecture halls, in schoolrooms, on the editorial and op-ed pages of our local and national newspapers, in the blogosphere and other internet meeting places, and on community radio and television programs, until such time as the complicit corporate media is forced to speak truth to the citizenry rather than boldfaced lies on behalf of an anti-democratic corporate-political elite.
Let us carry within us, and communicate to the world, words of truth such that no dark, dank place is left for our war-criminal, corporate politicians and their propagandists to hide. Let us, then, begin to usher in true democracy, in which—for the first time in history—the citizenry, we, are self-respecting and respected, critically educated, and empowered to mature as whole human beings, unshackled, finally, from the corrupting effects of political paternalism.
Due to his presently undergoing cancer treatment, Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video December 7, 2005, in Börssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.
His videotaped lecture is available for both high- and low- bandwidth internet connections. The lecture is also available in text format in the following languages: English, Swedish, French and German.
Click here to access the lecture in these various formats via the official Nobel Prize website.
Sean M. Madden (iNoodle.com)
Sean M. Madden (iNoodle.com)
e-mail:
sean@inoodle.com
Homepage:
http://inoodle.com/blog.html
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Reagan equates us founding fathers morally with contras
09.12.2005 22:33
The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua. I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the US body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself). Father Metcalf said: 'Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health centre, a cultural centre. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health centre, the cultural centre. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the US government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.'
Raymond Seitz had a very good reputation as a rational, responsible and highly sophisticated man. He was greatly respected in diplomatic circles. He listened, paused and then spoke with some gravity. 'Father,' he said, 'let me tell you something. In war, innocent people always suffer.' There was a frozen silence. We stared at him. He did not flinch.
Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.
Finally somebody said: 'But in this case “innocent people” were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidised by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?'
Seitz was imperturbable. 'I don't agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,' he said.
As we were leaving the Embassy a US aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply.
I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.'
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brian