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November 08, 2009

Cruising in the time machine

Two compelling articles here. Ironically, both are from New York papers. Both are also first-hand observer accounts written by foreigners (to the sites of the respective events). And both extensively report on factors which directly contributed to the respective events.

First up is a long but excellent look back at the Gaza War by Lawrence Wright writing in The New Yorker.

Every opportunity for peace in the Middle East has been led to slaughter, and at this isolated desert crossing, on June 25, 2006, another moment of promise culminated in bloodshed. The year had begun with tumult. That January, Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group, won Palestine’s parliamentary elections, defeating the more moderate Fatah Party. Both parties sent armed partisans into the streets, and Gaza verged on civil war. Then, on June 9th, a tentative truce between Hamas and Israel ended after an explosion on a beach near Gaza City, apparently caused by an Israeli artillery shell, killed seven members of a Palestinian family, who were picnicking. (The Israelis deny responsibility.) Hamas fired fifteen rockets into Israel the next day. The Israelis then launched air strikes into Gaza for several days, killing eight militants and fourteen civilians, including five children.

The second, by Serge Schmemann writing in the NYTimes, looks back at A Fateful Day which ended with the Berlin Wall being breached.

There was nothing through most of that gray, chilly Thursday to suggest that it would come to symbolize one of the great transitions of the 20th century, the triumphant end of a failed system. Even when the delirious crowds surged through the Berlin Wall shortly before midnight on Nov. 9, 1989, it was not because of any momentous decision or heroic feat; it was because of a bad translation, a confused border guard and a natural longing for a better life.

I've heard it said that individuals can't know who they are without first knowing where and what they came from. I believe that is true. In the same way, we as citizens of this country and of this planet have to know how things got to be the way they are today to fully understand the present day realities.

I'm reminded of a humorous bumper-sticker I saw about a year ago: "where am I going and what am I doing in this handbasket?" which of course is a play on the old "we're going to hell in a handbasket" saying.

If you'd rather not have any cherished preconceptions or assumptions challenged then I'd caution against reading either of these articles.

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation." - Herbert Spencer

Posted by Kevin at November 8, 2009 12:07 PM