Galway Advertiser 1994/1994_07_21/GA_21071994_E1_010.pdf 

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COMMENT & LETTERS

Moon Walking

Is Sean O'Shea Naive?
SREDR URNE T GN E O IKL
Dear Editor, Re: " T h e Tragedy o f Rwanda - Has W e D o n e Enough? (Letters P a g e , Ju ly 14th), I write out o f a feeling o f frustration w i t h Mr. John O'Shea's simplistic condemnation o f

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oday is the 25th anniversary of the first manned landing on our nearest celestial neighbour, the Moon. It is difficult now to remember the world-wide excitement this event caused, which was the culmination of that other phrase from another time, the "Space Race". From the late 1950s, when the Soviet Union astonished the world by announcing it had launched Sputnik, a tiny and, compared to later vehicles hurled into space, primitive capsule that orbited the Earth a few times and then landed back on in the Soviet Union, to the historic words spoken by Neil Armstrong as he set foot on the barren surface of the cratered Moon, this great adventure captured the imaginations of millions of people. While the Space Race was underway we learned the names N this day in 1691 of all the different astronauts, we adopted NASA-speak terms like "A-OK", we heard scientific pop the city of Galway ularises describe the future of what they called the Space Age, and we imagined our children would surrendered to think going to the Moon as commonplace as taking the bus to Dublin for the day. Baron de Ginkel, Twenty-five years later the Space Race is an antiquated term that seems to be as distant from our the experience as the covered wagon and indians of the Amrican West. The Race, once its goal had been Williamite general. achieved, gradually came to an end. Armstrong's name has joined those of Columbus, Cortez, Sir H e had, with an army of Edmund Hillary and other exploreres, but who can recall the name of the second man to walk on thefourteen t h o u s a n d m e n , man, or the third? arrived outside the city walls So what is there, if anything, to celebrate today? All that money, all that effort by so many people, o days earlier. They had tw and to what purpose? It was never a very useful project - it did give us teflon, but, all things con b e e n victorious at Athlone sidered, at a rather high price - and even at the time there were sceptics who pointed out, quite cor d at A u g h r i m a n d an rectly, that machines could have done, perhaps more effecively and certainly with less danger, what advanced o n Galway o n 19th the astronauts did. July. They had not brought Yet it was a magnicent achievement all the same, even if itremainsdifficult to explain exactly why. heavy artillery with them but It has something to do with that nebulous thing, the human spirit and what it's capable of achieving prepared, if they met were out of the pure desire to achieve. Perhaps rather than explanations, an image from a film of the time strong resistanace, to send expresses it best - that scene in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" where one of our pre cannon to Athlone. for human ancestors throws the bone he's just used to batter an enemy up into the sky, where, through w defended by the magic of cinema, it turns into a graceful, white rocket making its way across the heavens to the Galwayanda s Irish troops French strains of Tchikovksy's Blue Danube Waltz. Bizzare as it may sound, the Moon landing 25 years agoh i c h harried de Ginkel's today was a beautiful and extravagent work of art. And of works of art the last question you ever ask w advance. Various skirmishes is, why did you do it.

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A "Dismall" Error
D e a r Editor, I refer to a headline in last week's "Galway Advertiser" (14th July). In this headline (page 50), the word "dismal" was spelt "dismall" - with an extra let ter "1". T h i s , however, is n o c o m m o n misspelling but rather represents a rediscovery of our d e e p linguistic consciousness. This is demonstrated by the fact that our modern word 'dismal" is derived from a M i d d l e English word w h i c h is spelt "dismall" - w i t h an extra letter "1". T h u s , t h e r e is r i c h historical justification for this spelling of the word. In d e e d , I never expected a n y t h i n g l e s s from t h i s august journal, but perhaps the magical ambiguity of this particular headline was more than I expected: "Galway M i s s C h a n c e s With Dismall Forward Display." D o e s the term "Galway Miss" refer to an unmarried w o m a n from Galway, and if so, what e x actly w a s she chancing with her "Forward Display"? Yours, L . H . Holdenworth Galway. E d i t o r ' s C o m m e n t : Ah, so we have been discovered! Congratulations, Mr. Holdenworth (we assume we have the gender correct, but one can never be too certain these days), you have recognised the ' 'rear guard" action this newspaper has been conduc ting for many years now, which is to slip into articles and headlines examples of archaic spellings and even, on occasion, outdated gram matical constructions. Much of what is nowadays describ ed as "English" is a poor thing indeed, and the inser tion, now and then, for such discerning eyes as yours, of examples from the "well of English undefiled "isanat-i tempt to convey our truel linguistic colours. As fort your second point, referring to the headline in which the delightful "dismall" was discovered, you must forgive us if we say it has never been our policy to reveal the iden tity of those noticed in headlines on the grounds, uncontestable you would agree, that there is already for too much of "that land of thing" in the English tabloids.

the W e s t . M r . O ' S h e a ' s organisa tion, G O A L , is o n e for w h i c h I have great respect, and its record speaks for itself. But w h e n G O A L or Mr. O ' S h e a b e g i n s to broaden the discussion, in the w a y he d o e s in his let ter, with exaggeration and hyperbole he d o e s neither his organisation nor the cause he serves any favours. Furthermore, he reveals his o w n considerable naivite. " P r o b a b l y the greatest single e x a m p l e o f m a n ' s in humanity to his f e l l o w m a n this century", he writes, and "this the greatest o f all human d i s a s t e r s " . R e a l l y , M r . O ' S h e a ? Greater than the Holocaust? Greater than the systematic Stalinist e x termination o f the kulaks and the long and b l o o d y h i s t o r y o f the G u l a g s ? Greater than the m i l l i o n s w h o died during Chairman M a o ' s Cultural Revolution? Greater than the killing fields o f Cambodia? Greater than the Turkish destruction o f Armenia? Even allowing for the e x tent o f Mr. O ' S h e a ' s in dignation over what has hap pened and is continuing to happen in Rwanda, this ir responsible hyperbole is in e x c u s a b l e c o m i n g from s o m e o n e o c c u p y i n g such a position as he d o e s . H e g o e s on to chastise the "International C o m m u n i t y " for its "total indif f e r e n c e . . . to the suffering of black African w o m e n and c h i l d r e n " , and raises o n c e again the old d e m o n o f the Iraqi W a r o v e r Kuwait, remarking, t y p i c a l l y , o n 'how quickly the big p o w e r s set in m o t i o n a plan to oust Saddam from oil rich Kuwait w h e n their o w n vital interests w e r e at s t a k e " . W a r is a nasty b u s i n e s s , as any solider w o u l d tell

y o u . But why should it be seen as somehow disreputable a m o t i v e to go to w a r to protect "vital in t e r e s t s " ? Apart from wars of sheer aggression, has any war in history e v e r been fought for anything besides "vital interests"? Whether w e like it or not, the World, not just the Western World, d e p e n d s on oil. W h e n a tyrant like Saddam took over o n e o f the most oil-rich countries in the Gulf, leav ing h i m , if unmolested, p o i s e d o n the e d g e o f Saudi Arabia, the world's greatest oil producing country, should the West have simp ly accepted the situation? Or w a s not this a very good reason to g o to war? T h e fact is, the Iraqi War and the Rwandan situation are t w o entirely different things. With the first there w a s a clear objective r e m o v e Iraq from Kuwait and the necessary m e a n s to a c c o m p l i s h the task - the c o m b i n e d military forces of the Coalition countries. The j o b w a s done swiftly and decisively, though historians will continue to argue if the removal of Saddam should not have been part of this job. M r . O ' S h e a is like so many today w h o are all too ready to document tragedies like Rwanda and criticise the W e s t for its selfishness, g r e e d , self-interest, and the like. But he clearly has no concrete idea h o w to tackle the situation, other than try ing to make the W e s t feel guilty. Then again, maybe M r . O ' S h e a has a plan w h i c h he omitted to outline in his letter. If s o , shouldn't he share it with us? Y o u r s sincerely, Peter M . Blakeney Castlebar, Co. Mayo.

What's The Story With Clinton?

took place to the north and east of the city as the Williamites approached. It w a s as the French and Irish retreated that Tirellan Castle was set on fire lest it be used as a base for de Ginkel's headquarters. T h e y a l s o burned other h o u s e s outside the walls before entering the city to great acclaim.

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lthough most people are probably not aware of it, we are very quickly reaching the point Lord D i l l o n w a s the town in the chronicle of the current presidency of the United States, when those who regard thegovernor and the French fortunes of that country as crucial to the stability of therestof the world are going to havegeneral, d ' U s s o n e , w e r e to answer a question: Is Bill Clinton a deeply corrupt politician who deserves to be tossed agreed to defend the city. out of office, or is he the victim of a carefully orchestrated conspiracy designed to discredit both the T h e r e w e r e other man personally and the policies for which he was elected less than two years ago? Jacobites, however, w h o Mention the word "conspiracy" and people start to look at you oddly, as if you are short of a few were already planning to marbles; mention it inregardto the President of the United States and people start thinking you've bring about a surrender. One been reading too many spy thrillers. "Conspiracies", they say, "don't happen in countries like of the most notable of these America. That's the sort of thing you get in sleazy Latin American states or backward African coun a s w f tries." You will told that the United States is an open society, with a great tradition of hard-hitting a r r o wD een iesl l y , D a lsye c o nod C n k investigative journalism that would expose any such thingrightaway. And this is all true, of course. j t c f th court o But just consider for a moment what's been happening with Bill Clinton and his wife, Hilary.cu smimeo n opleas.e Indeed hisf o Elected after twelve years of Republican domination, Clinton brought to the White House a series of sc proposals that included some quite radical - at least in the United States context - ideas about cut h e m e w a s to have himself ting the military budget in order to free the huge sums involved for social programmes, plans forarrested by Ginkel's m e n as introducing a health care package that most European countries would regard as mild but which a subterfuge which might in persuade Galway to accept parts of America arouses the dreaded spectre of socialism, and a commitment to scaling down U.S. that resistance was involvement in global affairs. These proposals on their ownrepresentarealthreat to the vested interests of a great many indii m p o s s i b l e . H e w a s in viduals and organisations that face the prospect of reduced influence and financial gain if they are correspondence with Ginkel successful. And now consider that, if the bandwagon of serious accusations is to be believed. Bill regarding this plan. At the Clinton himself is a crook (demonstrated by the Whitewater scandal), a lecherous womaniser (as s a m e time an Irish deserter alleged by the charges of sexual harrasment brought by Ms Paula Jones), a pot-smoker and cocaine-a m e d C a p t a i n B o u r k e n user (more allegations based on the testimony of the manager of a Little Rock, Arkansas, apartment informed the Williamites of complex where Mr. Clinton's brother, who spent time in prison on drugs charges, lived for a time situation with the city the when his brother was Governor of Arkansas), and even, although this one has now been at least offiand actually led a party of cially laid torest,an accessory to the murder of one of his old friends who, allegedly, knew where g r e n a d i e r s a n d two the bodies were buried, so to speak, in the Whitewater affair. regiments of foot to attack Each of these charges, with the exception of the allegations of infidelity that were confronted duro n e of the strong points held ing the pre-Election campaign, has emerged since Mr. Clinton has taken office. And the question has by the b e s i e g e d Jacobites. to be asked: Given the kind of detailed checking that goes on into a candidate's private life these T h e subsequent exchange days, is it credible that all of this is just happening now because a number of private citizens havef firing appears to have had o finally decided to do their civic duty? Or are there other factors involved, another agenda being pur effect o n the leading an sued by those who despise Clinton and everything he stands for? inhabitants w h o , despite the It may be, of course, that Clinton is all of the things we have mentioned, and if so then we are pos general determination to sibly in for a paralysing scandal that will make Watergate look tame by comparison. Or it may be Clinton is simply an incompetent fool, a person of no principles who is entirely out of his league inresist, called o n Lord Dillon to the White House, but is not a crook, a incredibly indiscreet womaniser, a drug-user, or a murderer. accept the inevitable. Or, it just could be that what President Eisenhower, in his lastremarkableaddress before leaving S o after a lengthy parley office in 1960, called 'the military-industrial complex" has joined forces with a number of powerful articles of agreement were drafted and the city w a s corporate interests to drive this President from office in disgrace. Fantasy? Probably. But if you con i surrendered five days later. sider , for example, the CI A -assisted overthrow of Chilian president Allende, Watergate, the Iran|T Contra affair - each examples of other secret agendas being followed by what Noam Chomsky has h e capitulation left but o n e other called "the hidden government", it is worth at least keeping an open mind the next time an allega major city in Jacobite hands. Limerick, and it too tion of this sort is made.
gave in shortly afterwards. T h o m a s P. O ' N e i l l

58.58.58
USER FRIENDLY! THIS W E E K . .
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