Ryszard Kapuscinski Quotes
The 20th century was not only a century of totalitarian systems and wars. It was also the century of decolonization, of a great liberation. Three quarters of the residents of our planet freed themselves from colonial subjugation and - at least formally - became fully entitled citizens of the world. There never had been such an event in all history, and never will be again.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, Polish Writer & Journalist, Our Responsibilities in a Multicultural World
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In the negotiations the Indian nationalists of the Congress Party did not get everything that they wanted. Rarely does anyone in legitimate negotiations. This was a masterful example of oratory where Nehru wanted to produce the euphoria and historical gravitas that was appropriate when the largest group of people in world history gained self-government and independence. Yet the Congress Party had made promises in the platforms over the years that had not been kept. The partition of the one nation into a Muslim state as well as India denied the Indians of some of their historically and economically most important territories and he had to acknowledge that failure without dampening the public enthusiasm for the great achievement. This was a masterpiece.
In 1937 the U. S. Treasury Department commissioned a pair of large murals to decorate the lobby or the Ariel Rios Federal Building in Washington DC. On the mural was depicted a U. S. Mail Service from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It showed four Puerto Rican women reading a letter in the Inuit dialect presumably delivered from Alaska. The authorities loved the mural until they discovered the translation of the Inuit letter. This was a direct reference to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Independence Movement. That year 18 Puerto Rican Nationalists were killed and over 100 wounded when police fired into a crowd of demonstrators on March 21. Kent, a famous artist, planted a newspaper story with the translation and soon media all over the company were drawing attention to the Puerto Rican movement, just as Kent had intended.
He was an Army Major at the time he wrote this article. In 1966 his positive view of Britain was overwhelmed by the anti-colonial fervor that existed in much of Africa.
Nostradamus made thousands of prophecies most of which seem not to have occurred as he predicted. However there were a few that some people believe predicted later events. In this case some think that he predicted the colonization and independence of America.
Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in book form attracted both controversy and admiration for blurring the conventions of reportage with the allegory and magical realism of literature. He was the Communist-era Polish Press Agency's only correspondent in Africa during decolonization, and also worked in South America and Asia. Between 1956 and 1981 he reported on 27 revolutions and coups, until he was fired because of his support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in his native country. He was celebrated by other practitioners of the genre. The acclaimed Italian reportage-writer Tiziano Terzani, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, and Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda accorded him the title "Maestro".
