Saturday, June 9, 2007

Col. Kurtz, Gen. Pershing, and Adm. Perry, All Rolled Into One

Is it any wonder the character type canonized in Joseph Conrad's Colonel George-Antoine Kurtz keeps reappearing in Western literature - from Prester John to Pippi Longstocking to Lawrence of Arabia?

The BBC has two stories side-by-side on their main page: The Albanians are a lot more sophisticated than the Vanuatuan villagers who latched on to Price Phillip as their object of worship. But their reaction stands in sharp contrast to Mr. Bush's reception anywhere else in the world:
"This is great. We are proud that the 'President of the World' is visiting Albania," says 23-year-old student Ardita...

Konstandin, a 29-year-old waiter at one of the bars, agrees. "It puts Albania on the map. It shows how close we are to America. We support President Bush and America"...

A few hundred metres away, the old mausoleum of the former Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, is now draped in US flags and a huge portrait of Mr Bush hangs above the entrance.
This isn't new:
It is said here that in 2003, while there were protests in other European capitals against the war in Iraq, Tirana was the only capital where demonstrations were actually held in favour of the war.
Those who have been delivered of much love much.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

"The horror... The horror." of unexplained connections. I would love to explore the parallels between Kurtz and Pippi Longstocking but linking to the amazon page for a pippi book isn't helping much in that regard.

ali baba

Macro Guy said...

Pippi's father rules a South Sea island.

Anonymous said...

Doh. Of course.... I feel ashamed for forgetting so much about one of my favorite childhood books.

ali baba