America: Full Frontal

Part of Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling
devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a
winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust
their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in
different kinds of graves.


For the full speech here

Exams and deadlines

It is the anniversary issue - one of those massive efforts you spend half the year winding down from (thank god it's over!) and the rest building up to (oh no, it's back!). One of those things you know requires a lot of work, pressure - all of which brings out only one response in me - to run as far from it as possible.

When it was time to study for exams I would be gripped by an irresistible urge to read books - I would take them to the bathroom, I would hide and read them, I would tell myself I would start studying at 4.45; at 4.45 I would be in the middle of a chapter and say 'definitely at the end of the chapter'. That would be 4.53, and I would think 'that's a vague time to start - I'll start at 5'. And so it would go till either my parents or sister arrived I was so wracked by guilt I would finally study a chapter after which I had to reward myself for all the hard work and the entire scenario would play itself out again.

So last night I stayed up till 4am reading a Mary Stewart (definitely not one of her better ones) and today I am gripped by the notion that I should have a life and that I should go out for a concert in a church. And of course I am writing this blog when I should be typing Pondicherry.

Also have been reminded of MM Kaye, and told that Shadow of the Moon is a book that must be read. So took a trip on the net to see whether there was an online version and came upon an obit and a sketch of her life - very interesting...

...There, on June 2 1941, Major-General GJ Hamilton, DSO, Queen Victoria's Own Corps of Guides - also known as "Goff", a hero of the northwest frontier - walked through the door. "I thought, that's it; don't ever let anyone tell you there is no such thing as love at first sight." He was married, which did not impede their affair or Kaye's ensuing pregnancy.

Removed to a small hill station, she bore him a daughter, unaided by a drunk medical orderly. It was a five-day labour; a tiger ate a water buffalo under her verandah; the medic shot the tiger; Kaye caught malaria from mosquitoes in the watertank. "It could only happen in India."

She married her divorced hero on Armistice Day 1945; Goff transferred to the British army and Kaye was a good soldier's wife, relocating 27 times.

Have decided to go to Daryaganj tomorrow - see whether I can run it to earth or will just console myself with many others.