[Reader-list] Edward Said, Rest in Peace

[Lehar ..]

another giant falls..
the man who opened our eyes.. coined the terms
Orientalism and cultural Imperialism..
Prof. Edward Said, Prof at Columbia University,
renowned intellectual and a beacon for progressives is
no more.
born a palestinian christian.. all the dispossessed..
Thank you. For being there. 
Prof. Said, May you rest in Peace.
------

A condolence Letter from Niloufer Bhagwat

Dear friends,
            I break my silence and my personal
 reverie, to share with you the sorrow
 that one more brilliant meteor , a proud
son of  Palestine and the Arab World , 
 Professor  Edward Said  of Columbia
University is no more.
 
 The legacy that he has left to  the people
of Palestine , to the Arab, African, American, Asian
people and to  all of us the world  over
 is his  universal work -"Culture and Imperialism " .
and Orientalism..
One of the most outstanding  books I have read ;
 incisive, analytical , poignant written with great 
depth and understanding of the Arab , African ,
Asian people  without which  our own 
perspective of Imperialism, a system
which still devours humanity , would have
 been incomplete.
 
I recall the searing pain that swept through
me when I read it and the beautiful literary
references ,English and French ,that he
referred to  advance  the thesis.
          
 Last night I sat through the interview 
which he gave to the BBC on the eve of the
 military aggression against Iraq which
 was replayed. His vehement opposition
to what had happened at Oslo. Of course
immediately after Oslo he had castigated
those who negotiated for what rightly
held to be a position not in the interests
of the Palestinian people and I recall
reading the pain and logic of his view
point.
         And as I watched him in that
interview , taking in every word
every gesture , every movement
as I knew that it would be the last
that I would see of him , a person
I had never met and yet known ; a
man so close to his homeland of
Palestine even in far away America
 , representing Palestine with 
elegance , passion , the personification
of refinement  even in a period
of acute  struggle ,which is the mark
 civilization .......I wondered whether
in the last two days he had been
conscious and  whether someone
had informed him that the State of
Palestine would soon no longer be
a dream for all exiles ......and that
  27  courageous pilots in Israel
had decided that they would no
longer obey illegal orders amounting
to War Crimes and Crimes Against
Humanity and fly on Assassination
Missions .And that democratic sections
of the Jewish people , rabbis, professors
soldiers , workers all over the world
 were beginning to question as to why 
the Palestinian people and the Jewish people
, both Semitic people, were being pitted against
 each other  in a dance of death and whose
purpose did this serve .Had not both peoples
suffered enough and unjustly both under
fascism and Imperialism .........
            I wonder whether someone told him
that there had been a rally of thousands in
Israel against the Settlements .......        
        You see friends , Brecht told us that 
"Soldiers Can think " and in the weeks and months
ahead Soldiers of more than one country will be deep
in thought about whether their duty lies in protecting
humanity or killing humanity, and where does the true
honour and dignity of a military uniform lie .
                  Turning the pages of Professor
Edward Said 's book  to-day what struck me was
his quotation from Aime Cesaire 's poem  
 
"For it is not true that the work of man is done
 that we have no business being on earth
that we parasite the world
that it is enough for us to heel to the world
whereas the work has only just begun
and man still must overcome all the interdictions
wedged in the recesses of his fervour  and no race has
a
monopoly on beauty , on intelligence on
strength........
 
............and we know that the sun turns around our 
earth lighting the parcel designated  by our will
alone
and that every star falls from sky to earth at our
omnipotent command ............."
           We are in a critical phase yet the world
is changing slowly but very surely  and I wonder
if Professor Said realized that  liberation was 
ahead even though the last climb before the
Summit is always the toughest.
        
Let us see who is stronger those with a
passion to unite the people of the world , to
creat to build or those with the passion to steal
and destroy ...........
 
                            Niloufer 


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