BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.

Subject: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 12:28 PM

Gunter Grass, German author most famous for The Tin Drum, won the Nobel Prize in 1999. Here he comments on the current US and world political situation. Worth reading -- it presents quite a different perspective on the German opposition to the war in Iraq.

Gunter Grass on Core Values

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 01:04 PM

A thoughtful piece, as far as it goes. An excerpt:

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...Is this really the United States of America, the country we fondly remember for any number of reasons? The generous benefactor of the Marshall Plan? The forbearing instructor in the lessons of democracy? The candid self-critic? The country that once made use of the teachings of the European Enlightenment to throw off its colonial masters and to provide itself with an exemplary constitution? Is this the country that made freedom of speech an incontrovertible human right?

It is not just foreigners who cringe as this ideal pales to the point where it is now a caricature of itself. There are many Americans who love their country too, people who are horrified by the betrayal of their founding values and by the hubris of those holding the reins of power. I stand with them. By their side, I declare myself pro-American. I protest with them against the brutalities brought about by the injustice of the mighty, against all restrictions of the freedom of expression, against information control reminiscent of the practices of totalitarian states and against the cynical equations that make the death of thousands of women and children acceptable so long as economic and political interests are protected.

No, it is not anti-Americanism that is damaging the image of the United States; nor do the dictator Saddam Hussein and his extensively disarmed country endanger the most powerful country in the world. It is President Bush and his government that are diminishing democratic values, bringing sure disaster to their own country, ignoring the United Nations, and that are now terrifying the world with a war in violation of international law.

We Germans often are asked if we are proud of our country. To answer this question has always been a burden. There were reasons for our doubts. But now I can say that the rejection of this preemptive war on the part of a majority in my country has made me proud of Germany. After having been largely responsible for two world wars and their criminal consequences, we seem to have made a difficult step. We seem to have learned from history.

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Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 01:35 PM

He certainly encapsulates a lot of my feelings. I found it ironic that through this whole thing that the comparison to Hitler and Germany was used about Saddam's Iraq whereas the actual comparison should have been to Bush and the USA.

Thanks for the link.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 01:39 PM

Maybe its a reincarnation thing -- all them Nazis had to go someplace when they got reduced to ashes during WW II. Guess they decided the US was a likely neighborhood.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: michaelr
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 07:52 PM

Gunter Grass is a great modern author and a wise man. I'm currently reading his latest novel, "Too Far Afield", in which he illuminates the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany with bits of the history of both Prussia and the East German "workers' ant peasants' state".

Weird, though -- in the jacket photo he kinda looks like Saddam!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: Peg
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 08:26 PM

great link to some wise words from a visionary man...thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: toadfrog
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 11:28 PM

I like the article. It's nice to know somebody remembers us from our better years.

Subject: RE: BS: Gunter Grass on the Present.
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 03:11 AM

Toadfrog: "It's nice to know somebody remembers us from our better years."

What a sad, wistful statement -- good for you.