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