Sunday, August 26, 2007

The most stupid interview: in the New York Times Magazine. Here is by far the most stupid interview. Let us begin with an intelligent foreign policy question:
"Didn’t President Ahmadinejad begin his career as one of the guards? In photographs, I always think he looks more like a homely professor than a tyrant. Yes. He’s so dangerous, but he looks like a little mouse." And then she asks this: "What was it like growing up as a Jew in a Muslim country? Every morning before classes the entire school would line up in the schoolyard and sing revolutionary songs. Afterward we would chant: “Marg bar America! Marg bar Israel! — Death to America! Death to Israel!” Did school officials know you were Jewish? Yes, but they view Judaism and Zionism as different entities. They may have some tolerance for the religion, but Israel is Zionism, and that’s the evil. As they say, the big Satan is America, and the little Satan is Israel." Does the New York Times really want to know what was it like growing up as a Jew in a Muslim country? I can help here. It is comparable to growing up as a non-Jew in a Jewish country, LIKE ISRAEL. Did you get it, o New York Times? Here, our native informant helps the New York Times readers in understanding the cultural codes of Middle East culture: "I would think that Iranian-born women see memoir-writing as a kind of protest against a society that demands so much stillness and silence of them. Perhaps. Even Farsi, as a language, is elusive and indirect. There’s this whole idea of taarof — you say something you don’t mean, and the other person is supposed to pick up on it. For example? If I am visiting you, I may say, “It is getting late; I must go,” and you say, “No, please stay,” and I am supposed to know that you really want me to go. People have to pick up on codes." Oh, really? What about shoes? Tell me, o expert on Middle East culture? Do they get offended if you throw shoes at them? Oh, and here is taarof for you: You have nothing interesting to say; you are quite boring. And I mean that literally. Did you understand, or shall I add more hints by using taarof?