Chapter 4: The Bystanders (Page 45-58)

A bystander is a person who is present in an event without participating in it. Chapter four is called this way because it shows four very different points of views of four very different bystanders. They all notice something is going on, they feel it in their stomach. But they haven't been able to figure out what it is. All of these characters have already been presented, but in this chapter we are able to see their more human (sensitive) side.

Mr. Tench feels lonely. He begins writing a letter to his wife, but doesn't know what to write. "His life was as sober, respectable, regular as even Mrs. Marsdyke could require" (page 46). She was his mother in law and he remembers she was very dominant. He Knew he had nothing to say to his wife, but he just had "the vague desire to put on record to somebody that he was still alive" (page 46). Poor dentist, he is too lonely.

Father José is walking around and passes through the cemetery. Some people are grieving their daughter. They ask him to say a prayer, but he is too scared to do it. He just couldn't trust anyone.He feels miserable about his life and knows he is "fat and ugly and old and humiliated" (page 49). Poor priest, he is desperate.

Coral realizes it is Thursday and her father didn't get the bananas down to the quay. She feels this enormous responsibility, she became an adult. Things no longer were a game, it was serious now. "The child stood in her woman's pain and looked at them: a horrible novelty enclosed her whole morning: it was as if today everything were memorable" (page 54-55).

The lieutenant detests Catholicism because it affected his life personally, and made his childhood horrible. In this chapter he shows more feelings than in any other. He talks to a boy and realizes he doesn't want his childhood to repeat. "He would eliminate from their childhood everything which had made him miserable, all that was poor, superstitious and corrupt" (page 58).

I am finding this book very boring and difficult to discuss. I wish I could explain each chapter better, but I just don't know how!!

Chapter 2: The Capital and Chapter 3: The River (Page 19-45)

In chapter 2 Mr. Greene talks about the situation. The socialists have taken over Mexico "...young men in red shirts milled boisterously round the gaseosa stalls" (page 20). They have prohibited the catholic religion, so they are persecuting and killing the priests and all those who continue practicing Catholicism secretly. "So-and-so found wearing a holy medal under his shirt 'fined five pesos"(page 21).

In this chapter two different points of view are presented. The lieutenant is against religion and is indifferent to the assassination of the priests. He seems to have a certain resentment against them and he remembers when he was younger and they were still accepted. They are looking for an specific priest that they haven't been able to capture so he proposes: "I will tell you what I'd do. I would take a man from every village in the state as a hostage. If the villagers didn't report the man when he came, the hostage would be shot-and then we'd take another" (page 24). This is a very cruel plan, there has to be a lot of hate in the lieutenant's heart for him to be willing to kill innocent villagers in order to capture one priest.

The second perspective we see is the married priest. He is miserable living with his house keeper/wife. "He thought with envy of the men who had died" (page 29). The only thing he holds on to is the fact that he can turn a cracker into the flesh of God. He feels ridiculous and helpless. Poor Jose, there is nothing he can do to fix his situation.

In chapter three there are many more perspectives. A foreign family who live in a banana plantation each have a different view of life. Captain Fellows comes home and finds a lieutenant waiting to talk to him about hiding a priest. He assures the officer that there is no priest in his plantation, but then he find out his daughter is hiding this priest.

Captain Fellows is an absent man. He likes acting happy and convinces himself that he is. He is very patient with his wife and is tranquil the whole time. Mrs. Fellows is a scared woman. "Terror was always just behind her shoulder: she was wasted by the effort of not turning round" (page 33). The thing was that she was terrified of death and panicked whenever this subject came up. Their daughter, Coral, is a great person. She let the priest stay and fed him. she is a very intelligent and firm young woman, and unlike her mother she is fearless. She spoke to the lieutenant and lied without hesitating.

The lieutenant's point of view is also described. He is as firm as Coral, and is wiling to do whatever it takes to capture the priest. I think he is the same man we see in chapter one, who is willing to kill innocent people in order to capture the priest. This man doesn't like the Fellows. "he had not been discourteous, he had waited till he supposed that they no longer watched him before he got rid of his hatred..."(page 36).

The priest who once was the stranger Mr. Tench met is the one being followed. He is an alcoholic and he is desperate in his situation. Coral was very nice to him, but he couldn't stay, so he started walking. He reached a village where he was warmly welcomed. They all were believers and hadn't seen a priest in five years. They want to confess themselves and even baptise a child. The priest was very tired and tried to leave for the next day so he could sleep. But the people were anxious.

I love that there are so many points of view presented. This makes the novel more interesting and it allows the reader to reach conclusions based on a omnipresent view.

Chapter 1: The Port (Page 7-19)

In the first chapter of The Power and The Glory, Graham Greene introduces us to Mr. Tench. He lives in a town on the coast of Mexico, but he is foreign (English or American, I am not sure). He was heading to a boat, General Obregon, to pick up a an ether cylinder, when he met the stranger. This man was going to leave on the boat, but he had to wait a couple of hours so Mr. Tench invited him to his house. The man spoke English, and Tench liked this a lot. They spoke and drank brandy, which was illegal at the time. Then a kid knocked on his door and asked for help because his mother was sick. The man left with the kid and missed his chance to leave on the boat.

Even though this chapter is very simple I noticed various details that might be foreshadowing something. The first thing is how Mr. Trench talks about him wanting to leave but not being able to. "You are lucky. You can get out. You haven't got your capital here"(page 17). Why is his capital holding him back? and why does he want to leave? There has to be a story behind Tench, and I hope the book talks about it eventually. This character reminded me of Kapuscinski. He is a lonely man that lives far away from where he was born. "Loneliness faced him there, vacancy. But he was as accustomed to both as to his own face in the glass" (page 18). They are both the type of person that know how to live by themselves, and this is not a very common characteristic. I also noticed that the stranger was hiding something. Why is this man leaving? He confirms my doubt twice in this chapter. The first time was when Mr. Tench read the book he left behind and it was written in Latin. "When he opened he was taken aback- what was printed inside didn't seem to belong; it was Latin" (page 18). why would the stranger hide the content of the book? Tench concluded there had to be something about it so he hid it. The second time I realized something was wrong with the stranger was when he says: "He had tried to escape, but he was like the King of a West African tribe, the slave of his people, who may not even lie down in case the winds should fail" (page 19). What is the stranger hiding from? and why is he tied down to his people?

This book is going to be great, I can feel it.

The Emperor

The passage that I read from The Emperor by Kapuscinski describes a reception the Emperor, Halie Selassie, held. Kapuscinski was invited as well as many other people from all the social classes. He describes the luxury and elegance of the place as well as the quantity of food there was. Kapuscinski went outside the palace, and saw the waiters walking towards a wall less building. He approached and noticed they were feeding beggars with the leftovers of the party. Then he went back in.

In this passage Kapuscinski presents the amazing, but real contrast of the world. While the rich are waisting money and giving themselves a luxurious life, the poor are starving to death. The worst of all is that everybody is aware of this, and no one does anything about it. Just like Kapuscinski did, he turned around and went back to the luxurious life, indifferent to the beggars' situation. I love how raw and real the author is when contrasting the two worlds, and how his description of the party makes you realize how the world of the rich is a bad as that one of the beggars, with people stealing their own emperor. Everyone is so fake, such a huge party just to impress the rest. Kapuscinski was able to say all this and more by just narrating the emperor's reception. He didn't have to include his feelings nor his thoughts to make the reader understand.

If this is rhetoric, then it is definitely logos because the author is using logic to convince us of the terrible world we are part of.

My Review Of The Passenger

The review on Ryzard Kapuscinski by Andrew Rice is a very complete one. It captures his character and uses quotes to support it. Even though I have only read The Soccer War the Kapuscinski described is exactly the one I met when I read it.

The most outstanding characteristic about him is the fact that he is everywhere, even in the most risky situations, but no body seems to notice him. He is a white man in the middle of an African revolution and they just let him be. He is invisible. This led me to doubt if he makes it up, but after reading the main chapter of the book I went back to believing him. He is so detailed and real.

I have to disagree with Rice when he says Kapuscinski does not talk about his early life. He mentions the fact that he witness a war in Poland various times throughout The Soccer War, for example when he sees the Cyprian refugees he remembered how he felt when the same happened to him and he talks about it in the speech he gives.

Apart from that, I do not think Kapuscinski’s books should have political analysis. It would take away the “novelish” and fun aspect they have. He is not the type of reporter that informs the facts; he is the one that covers the action. But this doesn’t make his books incomplete; they are just different. They are “New Literature”.

I wouldn’t consider Kapuscinski a racist. When he generalizes the Latin American people, I identified (I am Colombian). There are some things that we have in common and there is nothing wrong with pointing them out. If I could, I would even congratulate him because generalizing is a very difficult thing to do.

RHETORIC IN A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

TYPE OF RHETORIC: LOGOS

DEFINITION: Argument of logic (brain)

EXAMPLE: -Mr. Ahmadinejad has visited New York before. In September 2005, he addressed the General Assembly in a 29-minute speech

TYPE OF RHETORIC: ETHOS

DEFINITION: Argument of character (gut)

EXAMPLE: -Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly caused considerable confusion earlier today when he suggested that the request was still pending.

-He has clashed with the Bush administration over his country’s nuclear program and human rights record.

-Ahmadinejad’s shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement no.

-It is unacceptable for Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who refuses to renounce and end his own country’s support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation’s history.

TYPE OF RHETORIC: PATHOS

DEFINITION: Argument of emotion (heart)

EXAMPLES: -Mr. Ahmadinejad has also faced international criticism for calling the Holocaust a “myth” and sponsoring an international conference of people who denied the mass extermination of Jews in the Nazi regime.

-It’s inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at ground zero.

-This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation.

-Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious.

-That faith in freedom has always been and remains today our nation’s most potent weapon against repressive regimes everywhere in the world.

ARTICLE:

September 19, 2007, 3:31 pm
Iranian Leader Was Denied Ground Zero Visit
By Thomas J. Lueck
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking in Tehran last month. (Photo: Bloomberg News)
Updated, 5:59 p.m. An advance team for the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asked earlier this month that he be allowed to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week, but the request was denied, New York City police officials said today.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly caused considerable confusion earlier today when he suggested that the request was still pending. In fact, police officials said later, the request — made at a meeting that included the Secret Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — was denied for reasons of security and safety. They added that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s aides had asked that he be allowed into the pit, where construction is taking place.
Also today, the president of Columbia University, Lee C. Bollinger, announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad would speak at the university on Monday.
Mr. Ahmadinejad is expected to arrive in New York late Sunday, address the United Nations sometime on Monday, and leave the city Wednesday morning, according to police officials.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, elected in 2005, has been a leading antagonist of United States foreign relations. He has clashed with the Bush administration over his country’s nuclear program and human rights record. Mr. Ahmadinejad has also faced international criticism for calling the Holocaust a “myth” and sponsoring an international conference of people who denied the mass extermination of Jews in the Nazi regime. Leading Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, are planning to protest Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has visited New York before. In September 2005, he addressed the General Assembly in a 29-minute speech, in which he refused to rein in his nuclear program and inveighed against the United States and its allies, accusing Americans of brutalizing Iraqis and Afghanis.
In September 2006, the dean of Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs invited Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at the school’s World Leaders Forum, but the university’s president, Mr. Bollinger, withdrew the invitation, saying he was not certain that an appearance by Mr. Ahmadinejad would “reflect the academic values” of the event.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s request came to light today in a discussion that Commissioner Kelly had reporters with several news organizations.
Mr. Kelly, apparently relying on outdated information, said that Iranian officials had made a “formal request” that the police and Secret Service were discussing the matter with the Iranian Mission. The commissioner had said that the concerns had more to do with the logistics of dealing with the Iranian president’s large security detail than with his right, like any foreign visitor, to travel freely in the city. But Mr. Kelly had ruled out a trip into the pit. “Construction is in full swing, and it would not be possible for him to go where other people don’t go,” Mr. Kelly said.
A short while later, around 4:15 p.m., the Police Department’s spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that Mr. Kelly misspoke and that police commanders had already decided that a visit to ground zero by Mr. Ahmadinejad was not feasible.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, issued a statement denouncing Mr. Ahmadinejad’s request:
Ahmadinejad’s shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement no. It’s inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at ground zero. This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation. Instead of entertaining Ahmadinejad, we should be indicting him.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat and also a presidential candidate, issued a statement:
It is unacceptable for Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who refuses to renounce and end his own country’s support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation’s history.
Also today, Mr. Bollinger said that Mr. Ahmadinejad would speak at the World Leaders Forum, organized by Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, on Monday. Mr. Bollinger said in a statement:
In order to have such a University-wide forum, we have insisted that a number of conditions be met, first and foremost that President Ahmadinejad agree to divide his time evenly between delivering remarks and responding to audience questions. I also wanted to be sure the Iranians understood that I would myself introduce the event with a series of sharp challenges to the President on issues including:
the Iranian President’s denial of the Holocaust;
his public call for the destruction of the state of Israel;
his reported support for international terrorism that targets innocent civilians and American troops;
Iran’s pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international sanction;
his government’s widely documented suppression of civil society and particularly of women’s rights; and
his government’s imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including one of Columbia own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.
I would like to add a few comments on the principles that underlie this event. Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas­ to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes. Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most, or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason.
I would also like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society. It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas, or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.
That such a forum could not take place on a university campus in Iran today sharpens the point of what we do here. To commit oneself to a life­ and a civil society ­prepared to examine critically all ideas arises from a deep faith in the myriad benefits of a long-term process of meeting bad beliefs with better beliefs and hateful words with wiser words. That faith in freedom has always been and remains today our nation’s most potent weapon against repressive regimes everywhere in the world. This is America at its best.

The Last Trip (Pages 216-234)

The Ogaden is the territory between Ethiopia and Somalia. Each one believes it is theirs. Anyways there is no boundaries because neither can afford them. Their armies are not strong, but they fight anyways. Kapuscinski was able to witness this fighting from the perspective of both countries. First he lived it with the Somalis, he saw how much damage the Ethiopians caused them, and he supported them. Some years later he went to Ethiopia, and the same thing happened. This quote explains Kapuscinski's situation: "I had nothing against either nation, but circumstances had forced me to take sides in that conflict- first one side and now the other" (page 224).

The last chapter of the book talks about Accra. Kapuscinski and his friend visit a Nana, which is like the town's boss. They spoke about Poland and women. Then they become friends. I didn't understand this chapter very well. I will write more about it when I do.

I envy how much Kapuscinski was able to experience and how many difficult moments he was able to overcome. It is very impressive that this adventurous man died of old age and survived so many things. Not even a scorpion could defeat this strong man. Fiction books don't have characters so amazing, that witness wars and revolutions around the world and bravely risk their lives. He became a person I will always look up to.

There Will Be No Paradise (page 205-215)

Kapuscinski visited Cyprus during the war between Greeks and Turks. The Turks had invaded Cyprus and left lots of people homeless. He went to one of the refugee camps and saw how poorly this people were living. He speaks to some of them and listen to their stories, he even goes into the tent of some old women who received him.

I think Kapuscinski gives this title to the chapter because during this trip he realizes that there will be no paradise. When he arrives at Cyprus he is amazed of how beautiful it is, and suddenly he gets to a "flat, big, covered with tents" (page 205) place. This contrast would shock anyone. Apart from this, when he has to give a speech he realizes there is nothing he can tell the Cyprian and nothing he can do to make it better. "Our world does not smile at everyone and when it is good in one place, it is bad in another" (page 207). He knows that things can not be perfect, which makes it impossible for paradise to exist.

I liked how Kapuscinski related himself with this people. He once was in their position, and this makes it easier for him to explain how they are feeling and how desperate they are. If someone else talks about the situation the Cyprian were going through, the report would never be this good because it would only mention the facts. Kapuscinski describes the people and their pain, and this is what matters.

I was very impressed when Kapuscinski mentions Bogota as a city where "human energy" is wasted because many people are refugees. "The peasants on the outskirt of Lima and Bogota, or the ones in India and Thailand, or the young people in Nigeria and Kenya: a billion people capable of work with nothing or almost nothing to do for the duration of their lives" (page 206). It is very sad to know that we are categorized with very poor African countries. It is also devastating to become aware that all those young men and women we see walking in the street asking for money could be hard working citizens that can help our country grow and stabilize. And this is when I agree with Kapuscinsiki that "there is no paradise".

(Page 188-204)

Kapuscinski wants to write a book defining political terms, but every time he begins something new happens and he has to stop. This reporter had to travel very often to witness all the important events that occurred. The world was changing very fast, and he had to be faster. Anyways, he is able to define various terms: silence, black, spirits, hierarchy, locked up, fortress, state visit, and life. For each one of this words he had an anecdote or a real life situation that defined it perfectly. Silence was the most shocking, I had never realized the fact that when something bad is taking place silence accompanies, specially when talking about a country. "Silence is a signal of unhappiness and, often, a crime" (page 189). The only way to cover up horrible things is by using silence which is hand to hand with repression.

On the other hand, I found the description of spirits very interesting. We had spoken about what a soul is, in English class, and I was very pleased with this new point of view. "The body is only one element in a person's death: full death occurs only after the spirits have been destroyed or expelled..." (page 192). In our discussion we gave more importance to the body than the spirit, this Africans believe we have many spirits and they are more important than the body.

At the end of this chapter, Kapuscinski told us more about how his life goes. He is like a nomad, who has no home, he only travels around the world. He leads a lonely life because he has no time to create a place he can call home. But at the same time he is satisfied with his type of life: first, because he could quite and he doesn't, and second, he is an adventurous man.

The chapter "Boots" talks about the war between Israel and Palestine. Kapuscinski says that every citizen has to participate in a war. "War cannot be a matter for the army alone, because the burden of war is too great and the army itself will not manage to support it" (page 202). The Arabs didn't even know what was going on. They lived their normal daily life while the soldiers were fighting to survive.

The chapter has the name "boots" because Kapuscinski says that the boots the soldiers are wearing say what the soldier went through, for example "Terrible dusty boots- there was heavy fighting." (page 203). I think this is a very interesting observation.

I related Kapuscinski's analysis of this war with our current situation in Colombia. Our soldiers are confronting the guerrilla and they are having a very hard time, meanwhile we live normally and worry about insignificant things. Most of us are not even aware of what is going on and ignore the situation completely. This is very sad because I agree with Kapuscinski when he says there is no way we can win a war if the whole nation is not involved.

The Soccer War (Page 149-184)

When Kapuscinski got to Latin America it wasn't easy for him to feel comfortable. He had gotten used to the life of scarcity in Africa and was amazed by the amount of useless things this people had. In the chapter were he describes Latin America he tells an anecdote of each of the places he went to until he reaches the Soccer War. I loved this chapter because I think he mentioned the exact details that describe this part of the world. He uses the perfect words, I have never heard such a precise description of a place. In this chapter Kapuscinski proved himself not only as a reporter but as a fabulous writer too.

Throughout the whole book I have been wondering why the war between Honduras and El Salvador is called the Soccer War, but I never imagined it had to do with soccer. This war happened because El Salvador is a very small country with a huge population and many of it's peasants were moving to Honduras which is much bigger and has a smaller population. Then Honduras was going to redistribute the land and the Salvadorian people were going to be send back to El Salvador. This created tension between the two countries, and the incidents on the soccer matches were the drop that spilled the cup.

It is unbelievable that Kapuscinski was present the whole time. This shows his adventurous spirit once more. He is a a wonderful reporter who risked his own life to inform Poland and the world what was going on. First, he left the hotel to send information, knowing that everything was absolutely dark and that the government had said no one can leave their houses. Then he went to the border of the two countries where the fighting was taking place. His description of everything that happened is very intense and different from all the other war descriptions that are shown in movies. He tells us the real thing and how hard it is."In reality a soldier sees no further than his own nose, has his eyes full of sand or sweat, shoots at random and clings to the ground like a mole" (page 180). He also shows us how the soldiers didn't even know what they were fighting for, and that they had to make up a reason to fight for. In the case of one soldier he wanted to hide the boots of all the dead soldiers to then give them to his family which couldn't afford shoes. This chapter is the climax of the story and it is definitely shocking.

NPR's Report Of Kapuscinski After His Death

The report I heard in NPR could be considered a summary of the Soccer War even though it doesn't mention this book. The reason for this is that the Soccer War narrates Kapuscinski's life. In the program were he is mentioned there are two points that were discussed that can be related with the book. The first one is the fact that Kapuscinski was present in various revolutions through out the 60s 70s and 80s, and that he was present in the Soccer Match which was the war between Nicaragua and Honduras. After listening to this piece of information I assume that this war is the reason why the book was named this way.

The second connection of the program and the book is that in the first one a close friend and fellow writer, Lawrence Weschler spoke wonderful things about Kapuscinski, his personality, and how he narrates his books and at the same time is a character. In the Soccer War, in the chapter when he goes back to Poland we learn a lot about his personality and Weschler mentions this same characteristics. Apart from this through out the whole book we notice he is the main character and narrator of his book.

I think the program is very sweet to recognize him and take time to talk about this wonderful writer and reporter after his death. I also ended up liking him even more after listening how Wreschler spoke of him. I also want to read his other book which was mentioned in the interview because the first lines which were read are very attractive.

VOCABULARY WORDS:
Stifling
Caprice
Parquet
Bric-a-brac
Spindlylegged
Coup

Depression in Africa (page 129-148)

In this two chapters Kapuscinski tells us a lot about his personality and the difficulties of living in Africa. In the first chapter he proves how adventurous (we could even say crazy) he is. He is aware there is a civil war in Nigeria, and that the UPGA, which were treated unfairly by the central government, are very angry and want to take revenge. But this doesn't stop him, he gets in a car and drives right into the most dangerous place. "I was driving along a road where they say no white man can come back alive" (page 130). Kapuscinski acted very irresponsibly, but he is a brave man and came back alive. He was stopped by two roadblocks and he paid a fee, but on the third one he was out of money and had to quickly drive by. This was an admirable stupidity. There is no valid reason why he got himself into this, but he was very lucky and brave getting out of it.

In the next chapter, Kapuscinski tells us even more about himself when he describes how depressing life is in Africa. He is a very strong man who lived through sicknesses and survived them. He also survived "...the disease of loneliness, the disease of the tropical depression" (page 138). He also analyses the changes in a white man when he is living in Africa. "In the tropics the white feels weakened, or downright weak, whence comes the heightened tendency to outburst of aggression" (page139). But even though he accepts how hard this is, our reporter is a fighter who didn't give up and lived five years in this continent.

Later, when he returned to Warsaw, he informs us that he is not a desk man, and that he prefers adventures over having a stable job. But he and his boss are both OK with that, "He tolerated my adventures and my pathological lack of discipline" (page 141). In this quote we can also see that Kapuscinski is not an unconscious man like Meursalt. He knows what he is doing even if it is absolutely insane, and he enjoys what he does, and that I admire a lot.

A Dispute Over A Judge Ends In The Fall Of A Government (Page 121-128)

When Kapuscinski left Algeria, he found himself with many more revolutions in Africa. First, there was a conspiracy against the president of Conakry, Sekou Toure. The reporter had arrived there on his way to Accra, and found himself with a tense ambiance. Then when he got to Accra, Nkrumah, the president had a press conference and there were body searches and a lot of security. The police even checked a mechanical pencil Kapuscinski had in his pocket. This obviously created an environment of fear and distrust. You can notice that the government is afraid that something might happen because the neighbor countries were all going through a difficult moment. He then left Accra driving, his next stop was Lome, the capital of Togo. There he heard about the revolution going on in Congo.

Then he got to Cotonou, Dahomey where a revolution was taking place in that moment. He was warned not to stay there, but by what we have seen of this character, we can tell he is an adventurous man that doesn't mind dangerous situations, instead he seems to be looking for them. What was going on in Dahomey was that the president and vice president were fighting for who chose a judge for the Supreme Court. The situation became so bad that they stopped communicating, and this paralyzed the country. So Colonel Soglo which was a powerful man that had once made a coup forced both of them to quit and had to choose a new president.

Kapuscinski was amazed of the horrible situation in all these countries. It was unbelievable how he saw so much chaos in such a short amount of time and distance, and he concludes in a way that makes you even more amazed of the depressing moments the Africans are going through by listing what he just went through. And by saying: "Everywhere there was an atmosphere of tension, everywhere the smell of gunpowder" (page 127).

Algeria Hides its Face (page 95-119)

The Soccer War is a book in which Kapuscinski talks about revolutions in various continents of the world in the late 1900s. His way of writing is very interesting because he reports the incident and at the same time explains how the country works and includes his personal experience and opinion. In the case of Algeria, Kapuscinski reports how the revolution went, but at the same time he described each one of the characters and informs what happened before the coup, how the politics of the country function, and the general situation of Algeria. He also makes it fun to read because he narrates it as if it were a story. I also enjoy how detailed he describes everything. He allows you to get to know the character perfectly.

Ben Bella was the president of Algeria for three years. He reached this position with help from the army (Boumedienne). This third world country was in a very bad condition and there was nothing Ben Bella could do to fix it. It was stuck in a cycle in which good men did the best they could, but when their opponents noticed that they weren't accomplishing anything they would make a coup, and then another good man raised. In the case of Ben Bella, he was stabbed in the back by one of his own, Boumedienne. Ben Bella was having difficulties. He was very stressed and began to make all the decisions on his own. The rest of the politicians didn't approve of this, so when he scheduled a meeting to make changes in the army, Boumedienne stopped him.

Power is a very difficult thing to control. Specially in Ben Bella's situation were the country is so helpless that there is nothing he can do to change it. The only way to save Algeria was to unite and work together. This way there would have been less worry on who had the power and more on education and other important matters.

The End (Chapter 5)

The final chapter of this novel is one of reflection. Meursalt spends his days and nights thinking about various things. For example, he would create laws or changed the way prisoners should be killed. He also remembered a story about his father. The only one he mentions in the whole novel and probably the only one he knows. His father used to go see executions. After thinking of it for a while he accepted this from his father and stopped thinking of it as something repugnant. "But now I understood, it was perfectly normal" (page 110). With this thought as an introduction I realized Meursalt was loosing his mind. But who wouldn't, sitting day and night in a cell waiting for his appeal to be approved or for death to come. This was another thing he didn't stop thinking about, his appeal. I think this was what kept him awake, hope. It was the only thing he could hold on to. Marie also crossed his mind, but he didn't give her too much importance, as usual. He even imagined she was dead and didn't really care.

Finally his chaplain came to see him, hoping he would believe in God. He lectured Meursalt but it was useless, nothing would change this man's mind.The chaplain couldn't believe it because he was so blindly faithful that he couldn't understand how a man in Meursalt's condition was not praying for a miracle. This was incredible for this father. After a moment of anger the chaplain left and Meursalt stayed thinking of his moment of death and that he hoped a lot of people attended to feel less lonely.

The Trial (Chapter 3-4)

A year passed and it was summer again. Meursalt's trial began. Before the judge came in he looked around and his non understandable thoughts began. When he was walking in and saw the journalists, the jury and all of the rest of the people in the room he thought: "I had just one impression: I was sitting across from a row of seats on a street car and all this anonymous passengers were looking over new arrival to see if they could find something funny about him" (page 83). I think it is very strange that he is not thinking how nervous or uncomfortable he is. Those would be the thoughts of a normal man because this trial is going to define the rest of his life. But Mersalt was just fine.

He felt something only once, after the director of the home was interrogated. "He then asked the prosecutor if he had any questions to put to the witness, and the prosecutor exclaimed 'Oh no, that is quite sufficient!' with such a glee and with such a triumphant look in my direction that for the first time in years I had the stupid urge to cry, because I could feel how much all these people hated me" (page. 89-90). This reaction is not very common in this character, and he did not show it again, on the contrary he began to fade away because it was a hot day and he was tired. His neighbors were called as witnesses and they all spoke decently about him. But this wasn't very useful anyways. Then Mary spoke and made it even worst because it was incredible that Meursalt went to the beach and was with a woman the day after her mother was buried.

When the closing speeches were given by the prosecutor and by his lawyer. Meursalt thought the prosecutor's was better. "He reminded the court of my insensitivity; of my ignorance when asked Maman's age; of my swim the next day-with a woman; of the Fernandel movie; and finally of my taking Marie home with me."(page. 99). His lawyer tried to defend by saying he was an honest, hard working man, but this was not enough Meursalt was declared guilty of premeditated murder.