Tomgram

"The world as it is sweats violence from every pore"

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[In response to my plea on that Art Spiegelman interview, many readers wrote in to tell me that you simply have to keep scrolling down past the piece about Winnie the Pooh to reach it. Here’s how one reader described the process: “If one read the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ article, one noticed that one’s own scroll down was not operating and that the site supplies its own scroll mechanism. The interview was there, and about as moving as anything I’ve ever read.” So just try again. And thanks to all of you who took pity on me and offered help.]

This speech by Eduardo Galeano, given recently at the World Social Forum (and picked up off the always fascinating ZNET website), seemed the perfect response to Colin Powell’s “Adlai Stevenson” moment at the UN yesterday, to all the spinmeisters who swarmed the TV channels last night to tell us, in a well-crafted propaganda barrage, that there was only one path in the world and it leads directly to war, victory, occupation (and, let’s not mention this, the unavoidable deaths of the innocent and the guilty alike). His is no less a proper response to the hateful lies of Saddam Hussein and his minions of yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, of a man who must somehow see glory in being buried in the rubble of his capital city along with thousands of normal citizens who, unlike him, have no choice but to be buried there, should war come.

The brilliant modesty of the journalist, historian, poet, tale-teller, and all around defender of the rest of us, Eduardo Galeano, shines through even the roughest of translations. Don’t miss him below as he tells us why, instead of the bombs ticking, we humans should be “tik”ing. (I’m not going to explain. Read it and find out.) Then, if you don’t know his work already, get your hands on a copy of his most recent book, Upside Down, his vision of the world from the south looking north, and see what he’s like in a wonderful translation.

Galeano chooses the word “tik” as emblematic of humanity. I choose “modesty.” The small acts that are possible for each of us, the small acts that engender hope. That’s why the “rice for peace” mail-in program I mentioned the other day is so inventive. It puts the modesty of a tiny packet of rice, the tiniest of gestures toward our “enemy,” up against the complete immodesty, the impunity (to use one of Galeano’s favorite words), of the world’s mightiest power whose Secretary of War — we really should stop using that word “defense” — is still calling for more money for ever more horrific arms. Tom

Priceless Values
Speech Given at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil
By Eduardo Galeano
Feb. 4, 2003
ZNET

Translated by Simon Helweg-Larsen

Recently, in many countries at once, numerous popular demonstrations have been staged against the warring vocation of the Masters of the Planet. In the streets of many cities, these demonstrations give testimony to another possible world. The world as it is sweats violence from every pore and is submerged in a military culture that teaches how to kill and how to lie.

David Grossman, who was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and a specialist in military pedagogy, showed that man is not naturally inclined towards violence. Contrary to common belief, it is not easy to teach him to kill his fellow man. Violent education that brutalizes the soldier requires intense and prolonged training. According to Grossman this training begins, in the barracks, at eighteen years of age. Outside of the barracks, it begins at eighteen months. From a very young age, television brings these lessons home.

To read more Galeano click here

Translated by Simon Helweg-Larsen

Recently, in many countries at once, numerous popular demonstrations have been staged against the warring vocation of the Masters of the Planet. In the streets of many cities, these demonstrations give testimony to another possible world. The world as it is sweats violence from every pore and is submerged in a military culture that teaches how to kill and how to lie.

David Grossman, who was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and a specialist in military pedagogy, showed that man is not naturally inclined towards violence. Contrary to common belief, it is not easy to teach him to kill his fellow man. Violent education that brutalizes the soldier requires intense and prolonged training. According to Grossman this training begins, in the barracks, at eighteen years of age. Outside of the barracks, it begins at eighteen months. From a very young age, television brings these lessons home.

To read more Galeano click here