NOT everybody has the strength and courage of their convictions to speak out in defence of (as they perceive it) the truth. There aren’t too many people in the world today who do a good job of that. You can probably count them on both your hands: big names like Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Arundhiti Roy, Robert Fisk, Gore Vidal (a bit reclusive) or Naomi Klein and lesser known (at least in Pakistan) commentators like George Monbiot or Greg Palast.
However, here focus on the works of three others — American Michael Moore (who told off Bush at the Oscars last month, only to get booed in the process); British playwright, director, actor, poet and political activist Harold Pinter and the — also British — commentator John Pilger.
These three men have something that many of those holding outspoken views don’t necessarily have — they think clearly and logically and are able to convey their ideas and thoughts to their audiences in a straightforward and simple manner.
Michael Moore, who won an Oscar this year for his documentary Bowling for Columbine (a movie that examined the effects of America’s gun culture on its society), tells it like it is, and in the process of doing that makes you laugh. And if it weren’t for his website (www.michaelmoore.com) then his ideas and opinions wouldn’t be all that accessible to people around the world.
Here’s an excerpt from a letter he wrote to US President George W. Bush, less than a month ago on America’s intentions on Iraq, on the day the US deadline was supposed to run out (the war began two days later on March 19):
“There is virtually NO ONE in America who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and onto any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON’T FIND THEM! Why? ‘Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don’t want to kill him! Funny how that works!
“The majority of Americans — the ones who never elected you — are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives. Here’s what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs almost two dollars — the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve.
“Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits.
“Finally, we love France... [W]e wouldn’t even have this country known as America if it weren’t for the French? That it was their help in the Revolutionary War that won it for us? That our greatest thinkers and founding fathers — Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, etc. — spent many years in Paris where they refined the concepts that lead to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution? ...Your ignorance of the world has not only made you look stupid, it has painted you into a corner you can’t get out of.”
Needless to say, Mr Moore’s recent book on America, Stupid White Men, is highly recommended. So is his website.
Harold Pinter’s site (www.haroldpinter.org) outlines his lengthy literary achievements and offers readers and fans valuable insight about his thinking.
It has his short prophetic poem God Bless America:
Followers of this literary genius’s work will find a listing of his plays and films as well as speeches, articles and interviews. Especially telling is the text of the speech he made in November 2002 while accepting an honorary doctorate from the University of Turin. Excerpts: “The United States believes that the three thousand deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence. The three thousand deaths in Afghanistan are never referred to. The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through US and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to... The half a million deaths in Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina and Haiti, in actions supported and subsidized by the United States are never referred to. The millions of deaths in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are no longer referred to. The desperate plight of the Palestinian people, the central factor in world unrest, is hardly referred to. “
The full text of the speech was published in the British press on December 11, 2002. This prompted the US Ambassador in London to write a letter the next day to the newspaper saying that “Mr Pinter’s ridiculous assertions and characterizations do not merit a point-by-point rebuttal”. Mr Pinter, on his website, writes: “The Ambassador did not attempt a point-by-point rebuttal because he was unable to do so. My ‘assertions’ cannot be rebutted. They are true.
John Pilger (http://pilger.carlton.com) is a living legend in his own right and has his share of followers everywhere. In response to Tony Blair’s assertion that there have never been any protests for the “thousands of Iraqi children that die needlessly every year” (apparently because of Saddam Hussain’s refusal to step down), he wrote that the British prime minister or anyone in a position of influence never protested when in 1990 Saddam’s regime hanged the British journalist Farzad Bazoft, for “spying”. He says that in fact there wasn’t much protest in the British press either, simply because at that time it was politically expedient to support Mr Hussein’s regime, not least because Margaret Thatcher’s government did not want its arms deals with Baghdad jeopardized. In fact, “there is no record of Blair saying anything substantive about Saddam Hussein’s atrocities until after September 11 when the Americans, having failed to catch Osama Bin Laden, declared Saddam their number one enemy.
“The gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 has become part of Blair’s and Bush’s vocabulary. Eleven months after this atrocity, the assistant US secretary of state James Kelly flew to Baghdad to tell Saddam Hussein: ‘You are a source for moderation in the region, and the United States wants to broaden her relationship with Iraq.’”
Mr Pilger’s criticism of globalization and of the policies of multilateral bodies like IMF, WTO and the World Bank couldn’t be more reasoned. Some of his comments on this subject are: “Under globalization, performance requirements on foreign companies are increasingly being outlawed. Indeed, as part of its bid for membership of the WTO, China has had to amend its national legislation to drop many of the requirements it used to place on foreign firms. While this allows the multinationals to make greater profits, it prevents local communities from enjoying the benefits of investment.”
NOT everybody has the strength and courage of their convictions to speak out in defence of (as they perceive it) the truth. There aren’t too many people in the world today who do a good job of that. You can probably count them on both your hands: big names like Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Arundhiti Roy, Robert Fisk, Gore Vidal (a bit reclusive) or Naomi Klein and lesser known (at least in Pakistan) commentators like George Monbiot or Greg Palast.
