Horner's Corner

The picture captures the moment in May 1941 when Hitler’s elite paratroops invaded Crete. The scene is Heraklion, and the British, Dominion and Greek defenders are meeting the attackers with a lethal fire – firing up with small arms and anti aircraft guns. The photograph was taken from a trench in the British positions – imagine the noise of small arms crackling, the banging of AA guns, the droning of planes and the thud of distant bombs. One of the German transport planes has been hit; note the bombs hitting the water and how low the parachutes are. Although the Nazis eventually overwhelmed the defenders it was a close thing, and the German parachutists suffered such huge losses that they were never used again to attack from the air.

TO TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE

TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy man of men!
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon’s earless den;
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There’s not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man’s unconquerable mind.

William Wordsworth

Toussaint led the slaves of Haiti in their revolt, inspired by the  the French Revolution. It was the first great successful slave revolution in modern history. Although captured by the French and imprisoned by them, he was a hero to all those inspired by the same ideals – as Wordsworth here indicates. See also my posting ‘The Bois Caiman and the Tennis Court Oath’

The Importance of a Life: Michael Jackson versus Dead “Orientals”

Back in the Vietnam era, General William Westmoreland, interviewed by movie director Peter Davis for his Oscar-winning film Hearts and Minds, famously said: “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient.”

In those years, there were many in the U.S., including Davis, who insisted very publicly that a Vietnamese life had the same value as an American one. In the years of the Afghan War, Americans — our media and, by its relative silence, the public as well — turned Westmoreland’s statement into a way of life as well as a way of war. As one perk of that way of life, most Americans have been able to pretend that our war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with us — and Michael Jackson’s death, everything.

So he dies and our world goes mad. An Afghan wedding party, or five of them, are wiped off the face of the Earth and even a shrug is too much effort.

Read more at:

Guernica / Blog / Tom Engelhardt: Will What We Don’t Know (or Care to Know) Hurt Us?: Mourning Michael Jackson, Ignoring the Afghan Dead.