Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 12:46:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Omar Guessous <o_guessous-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: on the latest article of edward said


I understand where you're coming from Saeed, but in a
sense you are asking for major reform to occur within
the West (or US), prior to actually dealing w/ the
Palestinian cause. 
You would probably agree with me that this blindness,
hypocrisy, laziness, lack of genuine interest,
self-interest, etc. is for a large part the cause for
the naq'da, the occupation, the horror, and the
continuation of this decades-long liberation struggle.
So in a sense, why not deal with this issue first,
since it appears to be a root cause. Therefore, why
play into it, as Said seems to be calling for? 
But Saeed ... This blindness, to use a very tone-down
term, is only getting worse by the day! Add to it that
the Palestinians' situation continues to get worse,
even we think it's gone as far as it could. 
So yes, maybe the only option left that has the
potential (not even certitude) of yielding some
results for the Palestinians that are workable, and
even remotely humane, is to play the game. No
liberation struggle has ever, to my knowledge,
proceeded according to its sole vision and ideals, nor
has one ever obtained all that it thought deserved and
just. To my/our outrage, the Palestinians have been
imposed (not even dealt) some of the worst cards ever
in human history. At some point, yes compromise
(although Said shies away from labeling it as such) is
a necessary recourse. The struggle becomes, then, to
compromise without giving away too much ground, or of
one's principles. Where that line is? Debatable ... 
In struggle,
 .O.


--- saeed urrehman <think-AT-riseup.net> wrote:
> yes, sure. so who will present the moral case of the
> non-english speaking 
> majority of the world?
> 
> does it mean that if someone does not speak english,
> bad luck to them?
> 
> why cant the american government learn arabic and
> stop showing this 
> linguistic hubris?
> 
> now the palestinians have to suffer because of their
> broken english after 
> they have suffered because of broken houses, a
> broken country and a broken 
> education system. perhaps their language reflects
> their reality better than 
> the suited crows at the capitol hill of the united
> states of aphasia can 
> understand.
> 
> saeed
> 
> 
> 
> At 01:28 PM 4/7/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> 
> >As I understand it, all that Edward Said was saying
> was that if the 
> >Palestinian cause is to have a ghost of a chance at
> a hearing in the U.S. 
> >it must have articulate spokespeople. I was
> watching a forum of leading 
> >Arab nations' spokespeople on CSPAN-2 the other day
> (not sure of the exact 
> >occasion) and I could barely understand what the
> Palestinian spokesperson 
> >was saying. Not only was his language incoherent,
> his whole tone lacked 
> >seriousness, was not geared to presenting the
> Palestianians' case 
> >powerfully to the U.S. audience. I too was
> frustrated, because the case 
> >itself (the moral ground, as Said puts it) is so
> strong, but it is not 
> >self-explanatory for an ignorant audience, and yet
> there was no 
> >Palestinian  at this important forum who was
> willing/able to make this 
> >case clearly and cogently--either directly, or
> through a good interpreter.
> >
> >Josna
> >
> >
> >--- You wrote:
> >do not agree with edward said's phrase "miserably
> inadequate fractured
> >english" in this paragraph below. he seems to have
> internalized the power
> >structures that he has been criticizing throughout
> his career. what does he
> >mean by "primitive incompetence"? to invoke a
> phrase of mirza athar baig,
> >who will speak for the so called "mental underdog"?
> how can the subaltern
> >speak without fracturing the dominant language? if
> knowledge is power, how
> >does one insert "illegitimate" knowledge in the
> domain of "legitimacy"?
> >there are theorists who have even lauded the
> "doodles" of a child on
> >his/her textbook as a different kind of writing, a
> different kind of
> >authorship, a different kind of text, as a
> re-writing of the sacrality of
> >the text. but here we have, the phallic master of
> so-called postcoloniality
> >trying to preserve the sentencial in the english
> language.
> >
> >saeed
> >--- end of quote ---
> >
> >
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> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
> >
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===="There are insistent questions that we all have to ask and that make it clear to us that it is not possible to study simply for the sake of studying. As if we could study in a way that really had nothing to do with that distant, strange world out there."
- Paulo Freire, in 'Pedagogy of Freedom'

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