Peoples Geography — Reclaiming space

Creating people's geographies

Ahmadinejad steals the show in New York

It seems Iran’s Ahmadinejad has made quite a splash at the UN gathering in New York. See his address to the UN General Assembly and this review article in the Guardian entitled I love Everyone says smiling Ahmadinejad.

Justin Raimondo also weighs in with some good commentary on Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Dubya and the rolling UN show in World Politics and Show Biz over at AntiWar.com.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

It is good to see some thoughtful analysis rather than the routine right-wing demonising and sloganeering disinformation about Iran, particularly the oft-made allegation that Ahmadinejad has said he wanted Israel “wiped off the map”.

There is much contention over these remarks and their translation and respected Middle East scholars like Juan Cole who speak the language have disputed this (mis)translation.

This is important because it hinges upon providing those we know as “neocons” the pretext for demonising and ultimately bombing Iran. As we all know as the informed public, journalists and researchers, language matters.

There is no denying the Iranian leader’s antipathy towards the ideology of zionism, but the turn of phrase was a literary allusion that referred to a desire for, in our terms, regime change in Israel rather than an ostensible wish to nuke it off the map.

Virginia Tilley also asserts that the phrase was lost in translation and then siezed upon by belligerent pro-war neocons in a good Counterpunch article entitled ‘Putting Words in Ahmadinejad’s Mouth: Is Iran’s President Really a Jew-Hating, Holocaust-Denying Islmao-fascist who has threatened to “wipe Israel off the map?” Well worth a read.

ADDITIONAL RELEVANT ARTICLES

  • A good commentary from Jonathan Steele at the Guardian: ‘Lost In Translation: Experts confirm that Iran’s president did not call for Israel to be ‘wiped off the map’. Reports that he did serve to strengthen western hawks’
  • A perspective on US reporter Mike Wallace’s recent television interview with Ahmadinejad on the US 60 Minutes: Open Letter to Mike Wallace
  • For a review of the dispute between Cole and Hitchens on this issue, see an article by Bill Scher in the Huffington Post.

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Timely Reminders

"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes perceptibly worse than what it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
-- Aldous Huxley

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-- Diane DiPrima, "Rant", from Pieces of a Song.

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yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there"
-- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"


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