Phil Collins and Ahmadinejad
First, I’d like to state that the president of Columbia is an absolute twat. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. His remarks prior to Ahmadinejad’s speech included:
“Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.”
“”When you come to a place like this, this makes you quite simply ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”
It was ten minutes of that shit, by the leader of the university that invited him. Yes, I get that people don’t agree with a lot of what the Iranian president believes (and I share some of that feeling), but there is no excuse for regressing to personal attacks and/or treating an invited guest so poorly. I think Bollinger’s been secretly watching a little too much WWF.
In happier news, I surprised Hamou with tickets to the Genesis show on Saturday. It pretty much blew his mind, since he’s always liked Phil Collins, and he’s never seen a concert before. I asked him what he thought of Nationwide Arena (where the concert was held), and he yelled out “They could fit all of Tizgui in here, people, houses, everything!” Yes, his little home village of Tizgui, about 2000 people. Earlier, when I asked him how much he’d like to see the concert, and if he really liked the group, his response was “Who doesn’t like Phil Collins?’ Well, OK, not much I can say to that! I suppose that would be like asking a Moroccan if he liked “Hotel California” or “No Woman No Cry.” Or “Father and Son.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those songs in Morocco, and in all kinds of places.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
You should see the law blogs. People were pissed that he was invited to speak. So much for allowing free speech. I think it was refreshing. And, you are the first person to diss Bollinger and for that, I’m grateful. He could have said it in a much more political manner, “Americans are under the impression” or “the world views you as petty and cruel dictator.” A slam without being a jerka*s.
I’m sure you read that the audience laughed when he said there were no homosexuals (Columbia audience disproportionately worried about homosexuality over women’s rights seemed a little strange to me) in Iran. I’d love your thoughts, but honestly right or wrong aside, I think there’s a cultural element that makes him really believe it. R, for example, has gay friends, but they are all foreign. I don’t think he would see this as a localized issue.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Then again, maybe Bollinger was pandering to some wealthy donors. Still.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Father and Son is a favorite here, too. Malik said that he learned it in English class in Morocco. I’ll have to run the other two songs by him to see. I think he likes No Woman, No Cry, too.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:26 am
They must have come to ohio after philly - i went at the end of last week. I thought it was good, liked the backdrop/graphic stuff but I was pissed they didnt play Abacab or the song where he sings “i dont care anymore” not sure if thats the title. did he sing those at your concert?
September 30th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
As usual, I’m offbase. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801322.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Sounds like your classes are pretty interesting.