Thanks (last blog on The Soccer War

Again in the novel and in a very precise time, Kapuscinski talks about what for him is the most important honors of all. "´I know him`my friend Kofi said. ´He isn´t African.`That is the highest compliment that can be paid an european. It opens every dorr for him." (p.230) In the last pages of the novel Kapuscinski demonstrates, and lets the reader understand that by coming back to the topic of Africa he feel complete and full. Although this man always traveled and visited many places in the world, the one place that made his spirit blow was Africa. In my opinion, it is very interesting that a European has such an open heart to consider Africa, part of him. I really loved this novel, because it not only narrates a stroy, but it includes real fatcs, real events that make a big part of the worlds history. I also liked the fact that I could relate many parts in the novel, with past or current events that have happened in the world and specially in Colombia. Kapuscinski was a great writer and a great reportes.

Should we have faith in those who make war?

Should we really trust politicians or politics in general ? Are they saying everything that they are supposed to ? How can we really be faithful to them? Many say that politicians are trustworthy and that the have great ideas and love their country. I believe otherwise, I think that politicians at first may be whatever we want them to be, the problem is that time makes everything change and things start getting complicated, when factors such as money and power get in the way. This factors take whatever person, be it good or bad, to become ambicious and greedy. "Today one hears about noise pollution, but silence pollution is worse. Noise pollution affects the nerves; silence pollution is a matter of human lives." (p.190) In our world many lose their homes and even their lives, while living full of terror and desperation. The world keeps lots of information, information that may be crutial for the existence of the same. Placesin the world are suffering, right in this instance, but who cares? who even notice what´s happening? Sources and powerful countries keep alot of information, sometimes for strategy or because they don´t want the world presence what we would consider massacre and the violation of the human rights. "War is the most brutal of things for a simple reason; it demands horrendous sacrifices." (p.200)

Reality, cruel? or simply real ?

This chapter on "The Soccer War" was really really interesting and full of emotion. When Kapuscinski meets with the soldier who has no real intention of being and participating in the war, I realized that this is a reality that many have to live in. How harsh can this be? In this case a great example and comparison would be Colombia. In my country there are people that have to participate in the colombian army because they can´t pay (like many of the people in the "high class" society can) to be exented on taking part on the army. At the same time there are many farmland workers who have been taken to work and fight for a idiology which is not theirs and that which they don´t even agree with eg. Las FARC or ELN, when kindnapping poor people to fight for them. "He was a recruit, a dirt farmer; he had been called up a week ago, he didn´t know the army; the war meant nothing to him. He was trying to figure out how to survive it.
"He answered that when you live in a village it´s better not to ask questions because questions arouse the suspicions of the village mayor, and the mayor would volunteer him for the road gang..." (p.180)

It was really interseting what happened to this character (the farmer) and what he did when realizing that there were shoes that could be used by those in his family. How amazing can this be, that even in the middle of a war some details like this can become such a great and meaningful emotion. An emotion that can tear our hearts in small pieces, and emotion that is a reality for many in this world.
"He would strip a few of the dead of their boots, hide them under a bush and mark the place. When the war was over, he would return and have enough boots, for his whole family." (p.178)
"Now the war had a meanin g for him, a point of reference and goal." (p.178)

A world full of exageration and excess

It was really interesting reading on information about Latin America. This part in novel caught my attention because we live in the latin community, and I personnaly have more knowledge on what is happening in this side of the world, when comparing to places such as Algeria or Uganda, etc. It was very interesting to see how Kapuscinski mentions his visit to Chile and what a big contrast he found in society. "In reality, however, the residences of this old ladies were simply a pathological and kitschy manifestation of Latin America- that is, the universal prevalence of the baroque: but also as general commitment to excess and electicism." (p.151) This is just one of the characteristics that most definetly describe Latin America. Most of the spanish speaking countries have a different and peculiar way of living, our culture is definetly, I believe, a contradiction. We as a bicultural community believe in progress, and we have the ability to get influenced by the most stupid ideas which make us naive. We create great idiologies but we never take advantage of them, and when we use them something goes very wrong.

Coming back to the book I made an interesting connection with another novel that I read some years ago from the author Isabel Allende. In the moment I can´t remember the books name, but it talked about the social situation in Chile, some years ago. "There is alot of everything here and everything is exagerated: everuthing wants to impose itself, shock, knosk the beholder sideways." (p. 151)

Another interesting fact that is mentioned in the novel, and that gives a great example of what the Latin society portraits is; when the girl from El Salvador shot herself after watching the soccer game, between Honduras and El Salvador. "She then shot herself in the heart." (p.158) What happened in this moment id definetly not something positive, but what really caught my attention was the fatc that after her death people followed her and used her as an example of patriotism and love for her country.

Rethoric

Logos- argument by logic
* "the big sister, the brainy one"
* "18 year old, able to vote"

Ethos- argument by character and something that can gives clues to his personality
* "class president"
* " has had the highest grades in his class for the past year"

Pathos- argument by emotion
* "Texas Chain Massacre, we are all sorry for this unexpected and unimagible event"

Video on Kapuscinski´s death

I really liked the video because it made me understand Kapuscinski way of writing. At first, I didn´t consider this book as a novel. For me it was more of a text that named facts on different conflicts in the world. But, after listening to the video I understood the authors point of view. Kapuscinski was a reporter who let the world know about his expiriences, through his writing. I believe he had a very particular way of living and he had diferent goals as if compared with most of us. Basically something that I really like from him, was the fact that hewanted to expirience everything by his own means. He didn´t care about the struggling and the hard time that the world was going through, he was so active and knew that everyone can learn by expiriencing reality. "I was driving along the road where they say no white man can come back alive. I was driving to see if a white man could, because I had to expirience everything for myself." (p.130)

Vocabulary

1. Mareango
2. Algiers
3. slumped
4. hearse
5. geraniums
6.inquiries
7. taciturn
8. strode
9.brandished
10. chaplin
11. dwindling
12. prince-nez

Vocabulary

1. Mareango
2. Algiers
3. slumped

Vocabulary

1. Mareango
2. Algiers
3. slumped

Africa is part of me

After reading some more I understood that the reporter did not want to die..."I wanted to live, but life was abandoning me. I wanted to live, but I did not know how to defend my life. My life was going to end in inhuman torment."(p.134)

But continuing with what I was stating in the past blog when I mentioned that the reporter is trying to find explanations I want to highlight a quote that seems really interesting. " I did not regard my stay in Africa as merely a job. I had gone there after years of having to function as a cog in a complex mechanism of instructionsand commands, these and guidelines, and Africa had been, for me, liberation, where-between 37º21`and 34º52`latitude and 17º32 and 51º23`longitude, between Rass Ben Sekka in the north and Needle Point in the south, between Capo Almadi in the west and Raas Xaafun in the east I had left part of myself behind." (p.144) The reporter seems like a stranger when coming back home. Will he find more answers after flyng to South America? After expiriencing new emotions in Africa, it is difficult for the reporter to get used to other things. He left something behind, something that is understood only by him.

I would like to mention that it is very interesting how the author makes the use of history in the book, although sometimes this history gets really monotonous and makes the reader lose it´s interest in the novel. From the moment Kapuscinski gets on the car to travel through the coutry while at civil war and until he reaches his office in France he makes his emotions clear. The book starts getting finally interesting, letting me as a reader understand each and every detail of Kpuscinski´s emotions through out the novel, it is as if I am in the reporters position.

I have to say that many thing are left flying around with no response. For example what happens to Ben Bella and Boumedienne?

Have we lived in a real harsh atmosphere?

Did the reporter go through the roadblock 3 times, just to expirience the emotion o f war ?
"I was driving along the road where they say no white man can come back alive. I was driving to see if a white man could, because I had to expirience everything for myself." Why would someone want to expirience such misery?I believe the reporter has found a completely different sense to life. A sense that not many people have found, and that is more personal and makes the human being mature and find themself and what they always wanted, struggling for a reason a constant battle for knowledge . In this point I would like to make a connection with Meursault and how he acted upon what was happening in his life, Maman´s death, the Arab´s death and being accused with the death penalty. Maybe the reporter and Meursault have many things in common. I would have to say they are both trying to understand what life is all about, trying to escape from all that is monotonous in them.
"Over the distance of 520 kilometers, I had been cheked twenty-one times and subjected to four body searches. Everywhere there was an atmosphere of tension, everywhere the smell of gunpowder. " (p.127) The reporter had to go through many uncomfortable situations to expirience what war was all about. At the same time he made his emotions clear after crossing each and every roadblock. "...the worst thing is to make a gesture of self-difence, because that emboldens them, because that unleashes a new wave of agression in them." (p.131). He was caught in dispair and knew that each second could be his last. At the end of the day the repoter was alive, but something was left unclear. Did the reporter want to die ??

THE SOCCER WAR ...Typical Contrast on Third World Countries

"Algeria Hides It´s Face". What a great title for this chapter. This is what many countries do, specially those considered as Third World Countries. This countries hide behind facts that some (those who control the world) would consider acceptable. After reading this chapter I realized how similiar Colombia is to Algeria in terms of Contrast. The rich people who have the possibility to own a computer, a television , a great car, etc. While others live in missery, not even understanding what things such as internet and messenger are all about. Although at the same time, I understand that in Algeria things are classified in a higher scale.
"An image characteristic of a colonial country is the modern automated electronics factory, and beyond it´s walls are caverns inhabitated by people who still use wooden hoes. `Look what beautiful highways we´ve built for them.' say the colonialists. Indeed: but along those highways lie villages where people have yet emerged from the palaeolithic age. " (p. 99).
How harsh can this be, that even after more then 30 years the world is still struggling with such examples?

Other quotes that made me think were; "...the soldier-political with a rifle in one hand and an agitprop manuel in the other." ( p.105) How many countries haven´t stuggled with their army trying to get politcal control? Even Colombia can relate with this topic, taking in consideration that we had a president that many considered a dictator...El general Gustavo Rojas Pinilla who took control of the country and governed hand by hand with the army.

"Progress comes with great difficulty along such a road. The politician begins to push too hard. He looks for a way out through dictatorship. The dictatorship then fathers an opposition. The opposition organizes a coup. And the cycle begins anew." (p.106) History constantly repeats it´s self.

And this is by far the quote that shoked me the most; "´This is the man who is preparing the conspiracy against me.` And he asked: ´How are the intrigues coming along'`´Quite well, thank you.`Boumedienne replied."(p. 111) To what extent can cinism be present? Did Ben Bella know beforehand that something was wrong, and that a conspiracy was being planned to overthrow him from the power?